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REPRESENTiTlYE  ^  mmikM, 


BID&RAPHICAL    SKETCHES 


DF 


MEN  NDW  IN  PUBLIC  LIFE 


•o^o- 


WITH   PDRTRAITS, 


•0'^0« 


BY  H^,  W,  j;  HAM, 


•O'O-O' 


SRMRNNRH  : 
MDRNINE  NEWS    PRINT. 


S  II  I'i 
'of 


<?-^ 
^%' 


INDEX. a^ 


I'AGE. 

Adams,  A.  P.  (with  portrait) "  .  122 

Atliinson,  W.  G.  (with  portrait) 190 

Anderson,  Clifford  (with  portrait) 34 

Atwood,  W.  H 81 

Alexander,  E.  P 181 

Brown,  Joseph  E.  (with  portrait) 18 

Brown,  George  R 174 

Bleckley,  Logan  E 12 

Boynton,  James  S 67 

Brantley,  W.  G 104 

Blount,  James  H 65 

Barnes,  George  T 23 

Barnett,  N.  C 25 

Belt,  T.  C 91 

Calvin,  M.  V.  (with   portrait) 218 

Cabaniss,  H.  H.  (with  portrait) 128 

Caulder,  A.  D.  (with  portrait) 84 

Carlton,  H.  H.  (with  portrait) 140 

Chappell,  T.   J.  .    .    , 125 

Colquitt,  A.  H : 74 

Clay,  A.  S.  (with  portrait) 62 

Coggins,  J.  N 165 

Clements,  J.  C 93 

Crisp,  C.  F 109 

Cook,  Philip 193 

Davidson,  John  S.  (with  portrait) 88 

Dean,   Linton  A 230 

Faver,  Paul  (with  portrait) 208 

Fort,  Allen  (with  j^ortrait) 101 

Foute,  A.  M.  (with  portrait) 178 

Franklin,  P.  J.  (with  portrait) 202 

Fain,   Joel  C 222 

Gamble,  R.  L.  (with  portrait) 158 

Gibson,  T.  G 148 

Glenn,  W.  C 58 

Gordon,  John  B.  (with  portrait) 8 


J^  INDEX. 

PAGE. 

Gordon,  W.  W.  (with  portrait) '  .' 226 

Grimes,  Tliomas  W.  (with  portrait) 154 

Harrison,   W.   H 198 

Hardeman,  R.  M.  (with  jwrtrait) 48 

Harris,  W.  A.  (with  portrait) 106 

Ham,  H.  W.  J.  (with  portrait) 170 

Hawkins,  S.  W 117 

Hand,  J.  L 60 

Hardin,  M.  A.  (with  portrait) 76 

Hill,  H.  W.  (with  portrait) 186 

Hutchins,  N.  L 163 

Huff,  W.  A 45 

Howell,  E.  P 51 

Haralson,  Frank  L 57 

Jenkins,   W.   F 136 

James,   Joseph  S 232 

Kell,  John  M 41 

Kibbee,  C.   C 43 

Lamar,   J.    R 211 

Little,  W.  A.  (with  portrait) 54 

Lumsden,  J.  R 119 

Mattox,   John  W 132 

Mauney,   M.   L 131 

McCord,  C.  Z.  (with  portrait) 96 

Miller,   A.    L 183 

Norwood,  Thomas  M 196 

Peek,  W.  L 138 

Powell,  R.  J.  (with  portrait) 214 

Russell,  P.  M.  (with  portrait) 70 

Russell,  R.  B.  (with  portrait) 144 

Smith,   D.    N 134 

Stewart,  John   D 31 

Tate,  F.  C.  (with  portrait) 150 

Terrell,  J.  M.  (with  portrait) 112 

Thomas,  W.  W 167 

Turner,  H.  G 116 

Way,   A.   S 79 

Wellborn,  C.   J 206 

Wofford,    A.    P. 161 

Wright,  W.  A.  (with  portrait) 28 


.^INTRDDUCTDRY' 


^. 


N  presenting  this  collection  of  brief  biographies  of  Rep- 
resentative Georgians,  the  author  is  well  aware  that  it 
is  bj^  no  means  complete,  but  it  is  hoped  and  believed 
that  so  far  as  it  goes  it  is  accurate  and  reliable.  The  purpose 
has  been,  not  to  deal  in  mere  fulsome  eulogy,  but  to  give  in 
succinct  form  the  events  in  the  lives  of  those  of  whom  it  treats 
of  interest  to  the  public.  There  are  many  men  in  Georgia  who 
are  but  just  entering  upon  careers  destined  to  be  long  and  use- 
ful. It  is  interesting  to  know  from  whence  they  came,  and  how 
they  have  risen.  There  are  others  who  have  behind  them 
honorable  records,  which  should  be  embalmed  and  preserved. 
It  is  the  purpose  of  the  book  to  tell  the  story  of  the  one  and 
put  to  record  the  other.  If  it  proves  to  be  a  handy  book  of  ref- 
erence for  the  historian  of  the  future,  the  highest  ambition  of 
the  author  will  have  been  realized. 

This  volume,  dealing,  as  it  does,  only  with  men  now  in  public 
life,  is  intended  as  the  first  of  a  series  to  follow  at  regular  inter- 
vals upon  the  same  line.  It  is  hoped  that  with  added  experi- 
ence and  facilities  they  may  improve  with  each  succeeding 
edition. 

The  preparation  of  the  work  has  been  attended  with  some 
difficulty.  The  compilation  of  the  bare  facts  has  involved 
much  labor  of  a  delicate  character.     It  is  but  due  to  myself 

2 


INTRODUCTORY. 


and  the  subjects  treated  to  say  that  there  is  not  in  the  book  a 
sketch  in  the  nature  of  autobiography.  To  obtain  all  the  nec- 
essary data  without  offense  to  the  modesty  of  gentlemen  has 
involved  much  labor,  and  for  much  of  it  I  am  indebted  to 
friends  who  have  kindly  aided  me,  and  to  whom  I  desire  to 
return  my  heartfelt  thanks. 

The  preparation  of  the  sketches,  however,  has  been  in  the 
main  fascinating  employment,  and  in  many  instances  truly  a 
labor  of  love.  Most,  if  not  all,  the  men  have  honored  me  with 
their  personal  friendship,  aud  to  write  of  them  as  I  have  seen 
and  known  them  in  a  personal  intercourse,  that  has  been  as 
delightful  as  it  has  been  profitable,  has  afforded  me  sincerest 
pleasure. 

Bespeaking  for  this  unpretentious  volume  a  charitable  criti- 
cism, and  assuring  the  public  that  if  it  anywhere  lack  interest 
it  is  in  the  treatment,  and  not  the  subject,  I  submit  it  to  such 
readers  as  may  honor  me  by  its  perusal,  to  stand  or  fall  upon 
its  own  merits. 


H.  W.  J.  HAM. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.  JOHN  B.  GORDON, 

GOVERNOR    OF    GEORGIA. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.  JOHN  B.  GORDON, 

GOVERNOR    OF    GEORGIA, 


Even  the  casual  reader  will  understand  that  in  the  limits  of 
this  work  it  is  impossible  to  give  anything  which  might  be  dig- 
nified with  the  appellation  of  a  history  of  the  gentleman  who  at 
present  occupies  the  Gubernatorial  chair.  A  complete  history 
of  the  man,  his  deeds  of  valor  in  war,  and  his  achievements  in 
the  forums  of  peace,  would  in  themselves  fill  a  volume  larger 
and  more  pretentious  than  this.  Already  he  occupies  a  large 
space  in  books,  and  the  end  is  not  yet.  When  the  historian  of 
the  distant  future,  the  historian  who  shall  write  unblinded  by 
passion,  who  after  the  lapse  of  years  sufficient  to  enable  him  to 
write  uninfluenced  by  the  section  from  which  he  comes,  and 
the  environments  that  even  until  now  warp  and  bias  the  judg- 
ment, shall  come  to  calmly  weigh  and  put  to  record  the  history 
of  the  late  war,  the  causes  that  led  to  it,  the  conduct  of  the 
struggle,  and  the  results  which  followed  it,  tin?  subject  of  this 
sketch  will  have  a  place  among  the  knightliest  of  the  knightly 
men  who  drew  sword  in  defense  of  a  cause  they  believed  just, 
and  foUowtMl  its  banner  with  a  chivalric  devotion  that  the 
world  has  never  seen  surpassed  until  it  went  down  in  defeat 
that  was  without  dishonor.  But  it  must  b(^  left  to  the  historian 
of  the  future  to  tell  this  story.  There  art^  signs  that  the  day  is 
coming  when  it  can  be  done,  but  through  the  eftbrts  of  men 
who  finight  not  when  the  fight  was  on,  and  donned  war  paint 
only  when  war  was  no  more,  it  has  not  come  yet. 

John  B.  Gordon  was  born  F('l)ruary  <)th,  1<S;V2,  in  Upson 
county,  Georgia,  and  was  educated  at   the  (Georgia  State  Uni- 


10  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

versity.  He  enlisted  in  the  Confederate  army  in  April,  1861, 
as  Captain,  was  elected  Major  of  the  6th  Alabama  Regiment 
May,  1861,  Lieutenant  Colonel  December,  1861,  and  Colonel 
May,  1862,  and  was  sul)seqnently  promoted  to  Brigadier  Gen- 
eral, Major  General,  and  at  the  close  of  the  war  was  a  Lieuten- 
ant General,  and  the  right  arm  of  Robert  E.  Lee. 

It  is  impossible  to  give  even  a  bare  list  of  the  ensanguined 
fields  on  which  he  led  the  gallant  men  who  loved  and  followed 
him  into  the  thickest  of  the  fray.  He  never  said  "Go!"  he 
always  said  "Come!"  and  they  would  have  followed  him  anj^- 
where.  At  Manassas,  Seven  Pines,  all  the  battles  around  Rich- 
mond, including  Malvern  Hill,  Sharpsburg,  Md.,  South  Moun- 
tain, Fredericksburg,  Marye's  Heights,  Wrightsville,  Gettys- 
burg the  bloody,  the  Wilderness,  Spottsylvania  Court  House, 
Monocacy,  Md.,  Winchester,  Fisher's  Hill,  Cedar  Creek,  Hatch- 
er's Run,  Petersburg,  Hare's  Hill,  Petersburg  again,  and  finally 
Appomattox,  he  bore  aloft  the  flag  of  his  country.  Ah,  what  a 
host  of  memories  the  mere  recalling  the  names  brings  up.  To 
write  their  history,  or  that  of  a  man  who  was  a  mighty  figure 
in  them  all,  would  be  to  write  the  history  of  the  most  gigantic 
and  bloody  struggle  of  modern  history. 

General  Gordon  bears  on  his  person  the  marks  of  many 
wounds  received  in  battle.  At  Sharpsburg  he  received  five 
wounds  in  one  day,  and  it  was  only  the  fifth  and  last,  in  the 
face,  that  carried  him  off  the  field.  Had  our  artist  turned  the 
other  side  of  his  face  to  the  light  it  would  be  perceived  in  his 
portrait.  Shot  twice  through  the  leg,  he  refused  to  go  to  the 
rear ;  his  left  arm  mangled  by  a  ball,  he  yet  led  his  men ;  his 
shoulder  pierced  by  a  fourth,  he  sent  an  adjutant  along  the  line 
to  reassure  his  men,  and  to  tell  them  he  yet  led  them,  when  the 
fifth  laid  him  senseless  on  the  earth,  literally  bathed  in  his  own 
blood.  Haiiging  for  months  between  life  and  death,  he  was 
barely  convalescent  when  he  was  again  with  his  command,  to 
be  again  wounded  at  Sheperdstown,  and  still  again  at  Hare's 
Hill.  At  Appomattox  he  it  was  who  led  the  last  forlorn  hope 
of  the  Confederac}^  against  the  legions  of  Grant. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  11 

In  1868  General  Gordon  was  the  Democratic  nominee  for 
Governor  against  Kufus  B.  Bullock,  and  was  defeated.  Many 
of  the  best  men  in  the  State  were  disfranchised,  and  many  oth- 
ers, dispii'ited  and  broken,  staid  away  from  the  polls  and  ram- 
pant Repnblicanism  had  things  its  own  way.  In  1873  he  was 
elected  to  the  United  States  Senate,  and  was  re-elected  in  1879, 
but  resigned  his  seat  in  tliat  body  the  next  year.  From  then 
until  1880  he  held  no  public  office,  devoting  himself  to  private 
business  affairs,  but  last  year  he  was  nominated  by  the  Demo- 
cratic Convention  and  elected  Governor. 

Governor  Gordon  was  married  September  18th,  1854,  to  Miss 
Fanny  Haralson,  a  daughter  of  Hon.  Hugh  HaraLvSon,  of 
LaGrange,  Georgia.  There  has  never  been  a  happier  marriage. 
She  is  in  all  respects  a  most  remarkable  woman.  Gifted  with 
rare  beauty,  and  accomplished  in  the  highest  degree,  she^'has 
been  always  the  cherished  companion  of  her  distinguished  hus- 
band. Whether  ministering  b}^  his  bedside  when  the  deadly  mis- 
sile had  laid  him  low,  sharing  the  hardships  of  camp  life  to  be 
near  him,  or  shining  resplendent  in  the  brilliant  circles  into 
which  his  high  official  positions  have  called  her,  she  has  been . 
ever  and  always  the  true  and  devoted  wife,  the  guiding  star  of 
his  efforts,  and  his  solace,  comfort  and  purest  inspiration. 


12  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.  LOGAN  E.  BLECKLEY, 

CHIEF   JUSTICE    SUPREME    COURT    OF    GEORGIA. 


The  central  figure  on  the  Supreme  Bench  of  Georgia,  when 
that  honorable  body  is  in  session,  is  so  marked  and  distinctive 
that  it  would  attract  attention  anywhere.  Perhaps  there  is  no 
man  in  Georgia,  certainly  not  at  the  bar,  who  is  better  known 
throughout  the  State ;  neither  is  there  one  who  stands  higher 
in  the  regard  and  confidence  of  the  people.  He  looks  sage  and 
patriarchal,  but  is  withal  full  of  fine,  rich  humor,  a  jurist  well 
stored  with  legal  lore,  a  subtle  logician,  but  as  modest  and  un- 
ostentatious a  man  as  you  would  meet  between  the  poles.  To 
this  and  his  profession,  which  leads  not  to  such  brilliant  i:)aths 
as  the  sword  and  pen,  is  due  the  circumstance  that  his  fame  is 
not  greater  beyond  the  limits  of  his  native  State. 

Logan  E.  Bleckley  was  born  in  Rabun  county,  Georgia,  in 
1827.  At  the  early  age  of  eleven  years  he  commenced  to  write 
and  evinced  a  literary  trend  of  mind.  With  intervals  of  teach- 
ing country  schools  and  clerking  in  a  country  store  he  grew  to 
young  manhood.  In  1S4S,  when  just  twenty-one  years  old,  oc- 
curred an  incident  that  marks  the  i)eculiar  character  of  the 
man.  The  Western  and  Atlantic  Railroad  was  tlien  operated 
by  the  State,  and  somehow  learning  that  the  bookkeeper  of  the 
road  had  died,  young  Bleckley  wrote  a  letter  to  the  Governor 
at  Milledgeville  saying  that  on  a  certain  day  he  would  be  there 
to  secure  the  position.  The  very  audacity  of  the  young  man 
interested  the  august  official,  and  so  when  on  the  day  named  he 


*For  the  main  facts  of  this  sketch  the  author  is  indebted  to  an  admirable  arti- 
cle recently  inciiartd  by  Mr.  C.  A.  Niles,  the  Atlanta  journalist,  for  the  Ameri- 
can Press  Association. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  13 

presented  himself  before  that  functionary  and  informed  him 
that  he  had  come  "to  take  the  i)lace"  the  Governor  looked  him 
over,  and  informed  him  that  he  could  have  it. 

This  may  be  merely  a  legend,  but  after  coming  to  Atlanta 
Judge  Bleckley  wtus  appointed  Secretarj'  and  bookkeeper  of 
the  Western  and  Atlantic  Railroad,  a  responsible  position, 
which  he  filled  acceptably  for  three  years,  when  Gov.  Towns 
appointed  him  one  of  the  Secretaries  of  the  Executive  Depart- 
ment. At  the  close  of  the  year,  Gov.  Towns'  term  expiring, 
Bleckley  thought  he  was  threatened  with  consumption  and 
went  back  to  his  mountain  home  to  die,  but  when  spring  came 
he  had  gained  fortj^  pounds.  He  then  removed  to  Atlanta  to 
practice  law.  The  year  following  he  was  elected  Solicitor  Gen- 
eral of  the  Coweta  circuit,  then  a  very  large  one.  In  1857  he 
married  Miss  Haralson,  of  La  Grange,  a  daughter  of  Gen. 
Hugh  Haralson.  Another  daughter  married  Gen.  John  B. 
Gordon,  now  Governor  of  Georgia,  who  was  at  one  time  as- 
sociated with  Bleckley  in  the  law  practice. 

Judge  Bleckley's  military  career  was  brief  and  uneventful. 
He  was  opposed  to  secession  as  an  original  measure,  but  acqui- 
esced when  South  Carolina  seceded.  In  1861  he  entered  camp 
as  Adjutant  and  inspector  of  a  brigade,  but  soon  after  went 
with  a  cavalry  company  to  Virginia.  At  the  end  of  the  year 
his  health  failed  so  that  he  was  discharged.  In  '(55  and  '66  he 
was  one  of  the  State  Commission  to  draft  a  code  foi"  the  govern- 
ment of  the  freedmen.  This  was  a  fruitless  and  rather  erratic 
undertaking. 

In  1875  Judge  Bleckley  was  appointed  an  Associate  Justice 
of  the  Supreme  Court  by  Gov.  SivirrH.  His  decisions  Avhile  on 
the  bench  were  remarkably  sound  in  law,  original,  uni<|ue,  often 
quaint  and  humorous.  Tliey  run  through  the  reports  of  that 
period  rich,  warm  and  sparkling.  But  being  pre-eminently  an 
honest  man  he  always  dreaded  to  go  on  record  with  a  decision 
not  thoroughly  studied,  and  the  conscfiuent  dose  aj)pli('ation 
brought  on  mental  and  physical  exhaustion,  and  at  the  close  of 


U  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

the  September  term,  1879,  lie  resigned  his  position  on  the  Su- 
preme Bench.  He  made  this  the  occasion  to  do  what  no  otlier 
Judge,  so  far  as  the  knowledge  of  the  writer  extends,  has  ever 
done,  viz.:  to  place  on  record  in  the  published  volumes  of  decis- 
ions of  a  court  of  last  resort  an  ex(|uisite  poem.  In  tendering 
his  resignation  he  read  from  the  bench  the  following  lines, 
which  were  ordered  by  his  colleagues,  the  late  Chief  Justice 
Warner,  and  Associate,  afterwards  ( -hief  Justice  Jackson,  also 
now  deceased,  to  be  spread  on  the  minutes  of  the  court : 

IN  THE  MATTER  OF   REST. 
I. 

"  Rest  for  hand  and  broM'  and  breast, 

For  Angers,  heart  and  brain ! 
Rest  and  peace !  a  long  release 

From  labor  and  from  pain ; 
Pain  of  doubt,  fatigue,  despair- 
Pain  of  darkness  everywhere. 

And  seeking  light  in  vain. 

II. 
"  Peace  and  Rest!    Arc  they  the  best 
For  mortals  here  below  ? 
Is  soft  repose  from  work  and  woes 
^        A  bliss  for  men  to  know  ? 
Bliss  of  time  is  bliss  of  toil ; 
No  bliss  but  this,  from  sun  and  soil. 
Does  God  pei'mit  to  grow." 

Alarmed  about  his  health,  he  ''took  to  the  woods"  iigain,  as 
he  expressed  it.  He  built  a  cabin  on  Screamer  mountain,  at  an 
altitude  of  3,000  feet,  in  sight  of  his  old  home,  and  there  lived 
and  I'oughed  it — a  hermit — until  he  regained  his  health.  A  few 
months  ago,  on  the  death  of  Chief  Justice  Jackson,  he  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  vacancy  until  the  summer  session  of  the  General 
Assembly.  Whether  he  will  be  a  candidate  for  the  place  be- 
fore the  General  Assembly  remains  to  be  seen.  It  goes  without 
saying  that  if  he  will  say  he  will  accept  it  will  come  to  him 
without  the  asking. 

No  man  is  more  averse  to  notoriety  than  Judge  Bleckley, 
and  it  is  not  assumed,  but  real.  To  a  modest  request  for  some 
data  coniu'cted  with  his  life  for  this  volume,  he  replied:     "I 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


15 


liave  just  read  with  consternation  your  favor  threatening  to  put 
me  in  a  book.  Can  you  not  spare  me?  I  beg  j^ou  to  forl)ear. 
*  *  Jjeave  me  out  and  let  me  grow.  l*erliaps,  if  spared,  I 
may  become  great  enougli  to  become  tlie  subject  of  biograpliy, 
but  I  am  not  j'et — I  know  I  am  not.''  And  no  a})peal  could 
move  him.  But  for  the  good  fortune,  elsewhere  acknowledged, 
the  writer  could  not  have  i)repared  even  this  incomplete  and 
unsatisfactory  sketch . 


C  (yO^^UTinyK. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  19 


HON.  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN, 

UNITED    STATES    SENATOR    FROM    GEORGIA. 


In  the  limits  of  this  article  it  is  barely  possible  to  do  more 
than  liriefly  capitulate  the  leading  incidents  in  the  career  of 
Senator  Brown.  He  has  filled  so  large  a  space  in  the  public 
eye,  has  been  so  prominent  a  figure  in  politics,  has  achieved 
such  an  eminence  at  the  bar,  on  the  bench,  and  at  the  head  of 
great  industrial  enterprises,  that  to  write  a  history  of  Joseph 
E.  Brown  for  the  last  thirty  years  is  to  write  the  history  of 
Georgia  for  the  same  length  of  time.  Consequentlj^,  it  must 
suffice  for  the  purposes  of  this  article  to  give  in  briefest  space  a 
mere  synopsis  of  his  career. 

Joseph  E.  Brown  was  born  in  Pickens  District,  South  Caro- 
lina, April  loth,  1821,  and  removed  with  his  father  to  Georgia 
when  yet  a  boy.  Subsequently  was  educated  at  Calhoun  Acad- 
emy, in  the  State  of  his  birth,  and  commenced  to  make  his  way 
in  the  world  as  a  schoolmaster  at  Canton,  Cherokee  county, 
Georgia.  While  thus  engaged  he  devoted  his  spare  moments 
to  the  study  of  the  law,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  August, 
1845.  Not  satisfied  with  his  legal  equipment,  however,  he  at 
once  entered  Yale  Law  School,  where  he  graduated,  and  re- 
turning home,  commenced  the  practice  of  his  profession  in 
1846. 

The  first  political  office  ever  held  by  Mr.  Brown  was  that  of 
State  Senator,  to  which  he  was  elected  in  1849.  In  1852  his 
party  placed  him  on  the  Pierce  electoral  ticket.  In  1855  he 
was  elected  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court  of  the  Blue  Ridge  cir- 
cuit, which  position  he  held  until  he  was  nominated  for  Gov- 


20  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

ernor  in  1857  as  a  Democrat,  and  defeated  Benjamin  H.  Hill, 
Whig,  by  a  handsome  majority.  In  1859,  being  again  the 
nominee  of  his  party  against  Hon.  Warren  Aiken,  he  was  re- 
elected, and  was  in  the  Gubernatorial  chair  when,  in  1860,  the 
war  cloud  began  to  lower.  As  a  pronounced  secessionist  and 
States'  rights  champion,  he  defeated  Hon.  Eugenius  A.  Nisbet 
for  Governor,  and  entered  upon  his  third  term  in  1861.  In 
1863  he  defeated  Hon.  Joshua  Hill  and  Hon.  Timothy  Fur- 
low,  and  by  a  large  majority  over  both  was  called  a  fourth 
time  to  the  office  of  Governor. 

It  was  during  this  term  that  there  occurred  between  Gov. 
Brown  and  Hon.  Jefferson  Davis,  President  of  the  Confeder- 
ate States,  the  famous  dispute  over  the  Conscript  act,  the  cor- 
respondence upon  which  has  become  history.  Gov.  Brown  pro- 
tested against  the  constitutionality  of  the  law  which  gave  the 
general  government  authority  to  declare  who  were  subject  to 
military  duty,  and  impress  them  into  the  Confederate  service, 
and  contended  that  troops  should  be  raised  by  the  State  au- 
thorities and  by  them  turned  over  to  the  general  government. 
Though  pronounced  in  his  convictions  upon  the  subject,  and 
sustaining  them  by  most  convincing  arguments,  Gov.  Brown 
threw  no  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  enforcement  of  the  law, 
preferring  to  yield  rather  than  jeopard  the  cause  of  the  Con- 
federacy. 

J.fter  the  war  the  course  of  Gov.  Brown  provoked  the  first 
unpopularity  he  had  ever  experienced.  Realizing  and  accept- 
ing the  results  of  the  conflict  as  settled  and  fixed,  he  advocated 
reconstruction  as  the  shortest  way  to  peace  and  complete 
restoration  to  the  Union.  This  called  down  upon  him  much 
indignation  from  many  who  did  not  read  the  future  as  correctly 
as  he,  and  finding  no  sympathy  for  his  views  in  the  Democratic 
party,  he  voted  for  the  Grant  electoral  ticket.  In  1868  he  was 
nominated  for  United  States  Senator  by  the  Republicans,  and 
defeated  l)y  Hon.  Joshua  Hill,  and  was  thereupon  appointed 
Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  by  Gov.  Bullock.     Of  his 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  21 

service  ou  tl\e  Appellate  Court  Bench  the  reports  of  that  day 
bear  most  conclusive  testimony  to  liis  high  legal  attainments 
and  fearless  discharge  of  duty. 

In  1870  Judge  Brown  resigned  his  place  on  the  Supreme 
Bench  to  accept  the  Presidency  of  the  Western  and  Atlantic 
Railroad,  which  position  he  still  holds,  and  retired  from  active 
participation  in  politics,  but  was  a  close  observer  of  current 
affairs,  and  being  unable  to  agree  with  or  endorse  the  Republi- 
can policy,  in  1872  he  acted  with  the  Democrats,  who  by  this 
time  had  come  to  see  that  the  results  of  the  war  were  fixed 
principles,  and  from  that  time  to  now  has  given  his  best  ener- 
gies to  the  success  of  that  party. 

In  1880,  when  Hon.  Joiix  B.  Gordon  resigned  his  seat  in  the 
United  States  Senate,  Gov.  A.  H.  Colc^uitt  appointed  him  to 
fill  the  vacanc}^  until  the  meeting  of  the  Legislature.  In  the 
interim  the  Legislature  was  to  be  elected,  as  well  as  the  Gov- 
ernor, and  Gov.  Colquitt's  opponents  made  the  appointment  of 
Senator  Brown  their  ralljdng  Qvy,  and  with  Hon.  Thomas  M. 
Norwood  as  their  standard-bearer  essayed  his  defeat  and  the 
election  of  a  Legislature  inimical  to  Senator  Brown.  That 
contest  is  yet  fresh  in  the  public  mind.  It  would  have  been  a 
sulyect  for  wonder  had  not  Senator  Brown  thrown  himself  into 
it  with  all  the  ardor  of  his  nature.  Not  only  was  his  own  elec- 
tion, by  the  Legislature  to  be  chosen,  at  stake,  but  the  eff"ort 
was  being  made  to  sacrifice  his  friend  because  he  was  his  friend. 
Few  political  contests  have  ever  been  waged  in  the  State  in 
which  there  was  as  fierce  fighting  and  as  universal  interest. 
The  result  is  well  known.  Gov.  Colquitt  was  re-elected  by  a 
phenomenal  majority,  the  people  at  the  polls  thus  endorsing  his 
appointment  of  Senator  Brown,  and  the  Legislature  which  as- 
sembled the  following  November  ratified  and  carried  out  their 
verdict  by  electing  Senator  Brown  by  over  a  two-thirds  ma- 
jority over  Gen.  A.  R.  Lawton,  one  of  the  most  polislied, 
scholarly  and  popular  men  in  Georgia. 

In  1884,  upon  the  expiration  of  his  fii-st  term,  Senator  Brown 


22  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

was  re-elected  by  a  practically  unanimous  vote  of  the  General 
Assembly,  only  one  vote  being  cast  against  him  for  Gen.  Rob- 
ert Toombs  by  some  enthusiastic  admirer  of  that  gentleman. 
Senator  Brown  still  holds  the  position.  His  term  will  expire 
March  3,  1891. 

It  is  a  noticeable  fact  that  Senator  Brown  was  never  defeated 
for  any  office  when  a  candidate  before  the  people.  The  story 
of  his  many  successes,  and  only  one  defeat,  reads  almost  like  a 
romance.  Of  his  services  in  the  Senate  we  have  not  space  to 
speak.  They  are  part  of  the  current  history  of  the  day.  What 
his  future  will  be,  his  health  and  length  of  days  alone  will  de- 
termine. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.  GEORGE  T.  BARNES, 

MEMBER    OF    CONGRESS    FROM    THE    TENTH    DISTRICT. 


No  man  in  the  Georgia  delegation — conceded  to  be  one  of 
the  ablest  in  Congress  from  the  Sonth — stands  higher  than 
Hon.  George  T,  Barnes.  He  represents  a  district  the  territory 
comprising  which  has  sent  many  famons  men  to  the  Congress- 
ional halls,  and  Mr.  Barnes  bids  fair  to  add  even  new  histre  to 
the  record  of  the  tenth,  formerly  the  old  eighth  district,  repre- 
sented for  years  by  Alexander  H.  Stephens.  He  has  only 
served  one  term,  and  yet  in  this  brief  time  has  succeeded  in 
forging  to  the  front  as  one  of  the  most  able,  conservative  and 
pains-taking  representatives  from  the  South.  He  has  devoted 
himself  rather  to  arduous  work  than  indiscriminate  talk,  and 
has  succeeded  in  securing  a  public  building  for  Augusta  and 
manj'  other  practical  benefits  for  the  people  he  represents. 

George  T.  Barnes  was  born  in  Richmond  countj^,  his  present 
residence,  August  14,  1833.  He  received  the  elements  of  an 
education  at  the  old  Richmond  Count}'  Academj',  and  after 
proper  preparation  entered  f'ranklin  College,  University  of 
Georgia,  at  Athens,  where  he  graduated  in  1853.  Choosing  the 
law  as  a  profession,  after  leaving  college  he  entered  upon  the 
study,  and  in  a  short  time  was  admitted  to  the  bar.  He  has 
since  devoted  himself  to  the  practice,  in  which  he  has  been 
verj'  successful.  In  18(50,  at  the  age  of  twent3'-seveu,  Mr. 
Barnes  first  entered  politics,  and  was  elected  a  member  of  the 
lower  house  of  the  General  Assembly,  and  remained,  being 
continuously  re-elected  until  1865. 
3 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


Devoting  himself  after  the  war  to  his  profession,  Mr.  Baknes 
held  no  political  office,  nor  sought  it,  for  a  number  of  years,  but 
was  nevertheless  a  close  observer  and  active  participant  in 
State  political  affairs.  In  1876  he  was  selected  as  the  member 
for  Georgia  on  the  National  Democratic  Executive  Committee, 
and  held  that  position  until  1884,  rendering  valuable  service  to 
his  party,  and  contributing  in  no  small  measure  to  the  National 
Democratic  victory. 

Mr.  Barnes  was  nominated  and  elected  to  the  Forty-ninth, 
and  has  been  re-elected  to  the  Fiftieth  Congress.  Personally 
he  is  a  social,  genial  companion,  and  a  fair  t}^e  of  the  whole- 
souled,  big-brained,  generous  Southern  gentleman,  who  well 
deserves  the  honors  which  he  wears  with  a  modesty  and  dignity 
that  are  not  among  the  least  charming  characteristics  of  the 
man. 


S^^ 

^"^* 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  25 


HON.  N.  C.  BARNETT, 

SECRETARY    OF    STATE. 


Hon,  Nathan  Crawford  Barnett,  who  at  present,  as  he  has 
for  a  number  of  years  past,  fills  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State, 
was  born  in  Columbia  county,  Georgia.  His  father,  William 
Barnett,  and  his  mother,  Anna  Crawford,  a  sister  of  Hon. 
William  H.  Crawford,  were  both  native  Virginians — the 
former  of  English  and  the  latter  of  Scotch  descent. 

At  an  early  age  Mr.  Barnett  lost  his  father,  and  his  mother 
removing  to  Oglethorpe  he  was  reared  and  educated  in  that 
county.  He  also  lived  for  some  years  in  Walton  count5^  Upon 
his  marriage  to  Miss  Margaret  J.  Morton,  of  Clarke  county, 
he  removed  to  Watkinsville,  then  the  county  site,  and  engaged 
in  planting  and  merchandizing.  His  fellow-citizens  chose  him 
Major  of  Militia  and  subsequently  Colonel. 

In  1836  Col.  Barnett  was  first  elected  to  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives. Of  the  measures  which  he  championed  the  build- 
ing of  the  Western  and  Atlantic  Railroad  was  perhaps  the 
most  notable.  At  the  end  of  two  sessions  he  retired  at  a  time 
when  he  could  have  been  a  State  Senator  for  the  asking. 

In  1840  he  lost  his  first  wife,  and. the  following  year  married 
Miss  Mary  Ann  Cooper,  of  Harris  county.  In  1843  he  was 
first  elected  Secretary  of  State,  and  was  re-elected  in  1845  and 
1847.  He  was  superseded  in  1849,  but  again  elected  in  18.51. 
He  was  superseded  in  1853.  In  18(51,  the  offices  of  Surveyor 
General  and  Secretary  of  State  being  consolidated,  he  was 
again  elected  to  the  office,  and  served  through  the  administra- 
tion of  Gov.  Joseph  E.  Brown,  also  one  term  after  the  war 


26  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

with  Gov.  Charles  J.  Jenkins,  and  when  Congress  established 
a  territorial  government  over  the  State  went  out  with  Gov. 
Jenkins,  carrying  the  great  seal  of  the  State,  and  retaining  it 
in  his  possession  until  the  adoption  of  the  constitution  of  1<S68. 
In  1873  he  was  again  elected  Secretary  of  State  by  the  Legisla- 
ture, the  first  after  the  Democracy  came  into  power,  and  has 
held  the  office  continuously  since,  being  elected  by  the  Legisla- 
ture until  the  adoption  of  the  constitution  of  1877,  and  since 
then  by  the  people. 

Few  men  have  served  their  State  so  long,  and  none  more 
faithfully.  There  is  neither  spot  nor  blemish  upon  his  charac- 
ter as  a  Christian  gentleman,  or  a  public  officer,  and  he  is  in 
every  way  worthy  to  have  a  place  in  the  record  of  the  names 
of  distinguished,  honored,  and  representative  Georgians.  No 
man  who  knows  him  but  would  yield  assent  to  the  declaration 
that  he  is  ''an  honest  man,  the  noblest  work  of  God." 


28 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.  W.  A.  WRIGHT, 

COMPTROLLER  GENERAL. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  29 


HON.  WILLIAM  xiMBROSB  WRIGHT, 

COMPTROLLER    GENERAL    OF    GEORGL\. 


The  office  of  the  Comptroller  G-eneral  is  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant in  the  State.  He  is  to  all  intents  and  purposes  the 
business  manager  of  the  vast  and  complicated  machinery  for 
the  raising  and  disbursement  of  the  large  revenue  of  the  Com- 
monwealth, and  upon  his  efficuency  and  capal)ility  depend  in 
large  measure  the  interest  and  well-being  of  tlie  citizen  in  so  far 
as  the  payment  of  taxes  and  their  proper  application  to  the  di- 
verse and  varied  purposes  of  government  are  concerned.  That 
any  man  should  have  performed  the  services  incident  to  this 
trying  and  important  position  for  a  number  of  years  with  the 
full  approval  of  the  peo})le  is  a  compliment  to  his  integrity, 
faithfulness  and  qualifications  that  any  man  might  be  proud  to 
possess.  This  important  office  is  at  present  filled  by  Hon.  W. 
A.  Wright,  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  and  so  his  antecedents 
and  personal  record  become  a  subject  of  pul)lic  interest. 

William  Ambrose  Wright,  the  eldest  son  of  Gen.  A.  K. 
Wright,  was  born  in  Louisville,  Jefferson  county,  January  19, 
184:4.  He  received  a  common  school  education  in  the  academy 
of  that  town.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  civil  war,  in  1860,  he 
enlisted  in  Company  C  (Dawson  Clrays)  Third  Georgia  Kegi- 
ment  as  a  private,  was  appointed  on  the  staff  of  his  father  Au- 
gust, 1862,  was  wounded  at  the  second  battle  of  Manassas  in 
the  right  heel  and  his  leg  was  amj)utated,  necH'ssitatiug  his  re- 
turn home,  whore  he  remained  uutil  April,  1863,  wlien  he  re- 
joined his  command ;  was  captured  June  18, 1863,  on  the  march 
to  Gettysburg  by  New  York  cavalry,  and  was  imprisioned  at 


30  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

Johnson's  Island  until  May,  1864,  when  he  was  exchanged  and 
returned  to  the  army.  He  was  at  the  siege  of  Petersburg,  but 
was  transferred  to  duty  at  Augusta,  Ga.,  December,  1864,  and 
put  in  charge  of  the  ordnance  supplies  at  that  point  for  the 
equipment  of  Johnson's  army,  where  he  remained  until  the 
close  of  hostilities. 

At  the  close  of  the  war,  without  means  to  complete  his  edu- 
cation, he  entered  upon  manual  labor,  so  far  as  able,  to  aid  in 
support  of  his  father's  family,  who,  being  debarred  from  the 
practice  of  his  profession,  and  his  property  swept  away,  was 
driven  to  dire  necessities.  The  subject  of  our  sketch  hauled 
the  products  of  the  little  farm  to  market  which  the  father  had 
made  and  gathered  When  the  political  disabilities  of  his 
father  were  removed  he  entered  at  once  upon  a  large  and  lucra- 
tive practice,  and  the  son  was  enabled  to  enter  upon  a  life 
career. 

Mr.  Wright  was  appointed  Comptroller  General  by  Gov. 
Colquitt,  September  17,  1879,  to  fill  the  unexpired  term  of  W. 
L.  GoLSMiTH,  and  has,  under  the  new  constitution  of  the  State, 
been  three  times  nominated  and  elected  by  the  people,  without 
opposition,  a  compliment  enjoyed  by  few  officers  who  have  ever 
served  the  State. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  31 


HON.  JOHN  D.  STEWART, 

MEMBER    OF    CONGRESS    FROM    THE    FIFTH    DISTRICT. 


John  D.  Stewart  was  born  in  Fayette  county,  Georgia,  Au- 
gust 2,  183;^,  and  is  the  son  of  George  and  Elizabeth  Stew- 
art, natives  of  North  Carolina. 

Mr.  Stewart  received  only  a  common  school  education,  ex- 
cept one  year  spent  at  Marshall  College,  Griffin,  Georgia.  He 
has  always  been  a  close  student  and  wide  reader,  and  in  this 
way  most  of  the  general  knowledge  which  has  so  well  fitted 
him  for  life's  duties  was  acquired. 

Mr.  Stewart  has  been  for  many  j'ears  a  resident  of  Griffin, 
twice  Mayor  of  that  city,  twice  represented  Spalding  county  in 
the  General  Assembly,  being  chairman  of  the  Judiciary  Com- 
mittee one  term,  and  was  for  eight  years  Judge  of  the  Court  of 
Ordinary  of  Spalding  county.  Mr.  Stewart  is  a  lawyer  by 
profession,  and  has  been  eminent  at  the  bar  of  the  State.  He 
was  for  five  years  Judge  of  the  Flint  circuit,  resigning  that 
position  to  become  a  candidate  for  Congressional  honors. 

In  religion,  as  were  his  father  and  mother  before  him.  Judge 
Stewart  is  a  Baptist,  and  has  been  for  a  number  of  years  a 
preacher  of  the  gospel.  He  stands  high  in  the  denominational 
counsels,  having  been  for  five  years  past  chairman  of  the  Home 
Mission  Board  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention,  four  years 
a  trustee  of  Mercer  Universit3%  and  is  also  a  member  of  the 
Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Theological  Semi- 
nary, located  at  Louisville,  Ky.  He  has  always  been  a  strong 
friend  of  education,  and  served  on  tlic  board  of  the  Sam  Bailey 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


Male  Institute,  at  Griffin,  and  also  of  Monroe  Female  College. 
In  1886  Judge  Stewart  received  the  Democratic  nomination 
for  Congress  from  the  Fifth  District,  and  was  elected  to  the 
fiftieth  Congress.     His  term  will  expire  March  3,  1889. 


3A 


REPRESENTA  TIVE  GEOR  GIANS. 


HON.  CLIFFORD  ANDERSON, 

ATTORNEY  GKNERAL  OF  (JEORGIA. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  35 


HON.  CLIFFORD  ANDERSON, 

ATTORNEY    GENERAL    OF    GEORGIA. 


Clifford  Anderson,  Attorney  General  of  Georgia,  was  born 
in  Nottoway  county,  Virginia,  March  23,  1833.  By  the  death 
of  his  motlier  in  1837,  and  of  his  father  in  1845,  he  was  left  an 
orphan  at  the  early  age  of  twelve,  with  only  such  rudiments  of 
an  education  as  he  had  been  able  to  acquire  up  to  that  time  in 
the  common  country  schools.  His  father  was  a  prominent  citi- 
zen of  Virginia,  and  had  been  wealthy  up  to  within  a  few  years 
of  his  death,  when  his  estate  was  almost  entirelj^  swept  away 
to  pay  secui-ity  debts  for  which  he  had  generously  become  re- 
sponsible. 

Shortl}^  after  the  death  of  his  father  young  Anderson  re- 
moved to  Macon,  Ga.,  and  entered  the  office  of  his  eldest 
brother,  William  Henry  Anderson,  and  his  brother-iu-law, 
Robert  S.  Lanier  (they  being  partners),  where,  without  the  aid 
of  a  teacher,  he  prosecuted  the  study  of  classical  literature, 
chemistry,  mental  and  moral  philosophy,  history,  logic,  rhetoric 
and  political  economy.  Having  mastered  these,  after  the  death 
of  his  brother,  in  January,  1850,  he  commenced  tlie  study  of 
law  under  Mr.  Lanier,  assisting  the  latter  also  in  liis  business 
as  agent  of  the  Southern  Mutual  Insurance  Company,  and 
prosecuting  the  study  for  two  years,  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in 
1852,  M'hen  not  quite  nineteen  years  old.  He  immediately 
formed  a  partnersliip  with  Mr.  Lanier,  which — except  duriug 
the  war,  when  both  were  in  the  service  of  the  Confederacy — 
has  continued  to  the  jiresent  time. 


36  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

In  1856  Mr.  Anderson  was  elected  Judge  of  the  City  Court 
of  Macon  for  the  term  of  four  years,  but  resigned  after  serving 
in  that  office  less  than  two  years.  He  was  married  in  January, 
1857,  to  Miss  Anna  LeConte,  of  Macon,  Georgia  (a  niece  of 
Prof  Joseph  LeConte,  now  of  the  University  of  California, 
and  also  of  Hon.  Eugenius  A.  Nisbet,  formerly  one  of  the  Jus- 
tices of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Georgia.)  He  and  his  family — 
now  consisting,  besides  his  wife,  of  nine  children — have  con- 
tinued to  reside  at  Macon  from  the  time  of  his  mariiage  to  the 
present  time — that  city  having  been  the  place  of  his  residence 
prior  to  his  marriage.  In  December,  1857,  he  was,  after  a 
spirited  contest,  elected  a  member  of  the  City  Council  of  Ma- 
con, and  was  re-elected  December,  1858,  for  a  second  term.  In 
October,  1859,  after  an  exciting  campaign,  he  was  elected  a 
member  of  the  Lower  House  of  the  General  Assembly,  and 
served  during  the  sessions  of  1859-60.  He  took  a  leading  and 
conspicuous  part  in  the  debates,  particularly  in  opposition  to  the 
'  bill  to  abolish  the  Supreme  Court,  and  in  favor  of  those  grant- 
ing State  aid  to  the  Macon  and  Brunswick  Kaih'oad,  and  calling 
a  convention  of  the  people  to  consider  the  question  of  secession. 
At  first  opposed  to  secession.  Judge  Anderson  reluctantly 
yielded  his  convictions  when  South  Carolina  went  out  of  the 
Union  and  he  saw  no  way  of  averting  a  conflict  between  the 
sections,  and  realizing  the  necessity  of  putting  Georgia  in  line 
with  her  sisters,  came  home  during  the  session  of  1860,  and  ad- 
dressed a  large  meeting  of  the  citizens  of  Macon  in  advocacy 
of  that  policy. 

At  the  opening  of  the  war  Judge  Anderson  volunteered  as  a 
private  in  the  celebrated  "Floyd  Kifles,"  of  which  gallant  and 
knightly  Tom  Hardeman  was  the  Captain,  and  this  and  three 
otlier  companies  constituted  the  first  body  of  troops  sent  by 
Georgia  to  the  battlefields  of  Virginia.  They  were  subsequently 
oi-ganized  into  the  Second  Georgia  Battalion. 

From  April  20, 1861 ,  to  September  of  that  ja^ar  Judge  Ander- 
son remained  in  the  ranks  as  a  private,  when,  a  vacancy  occur- 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  37 

ring  by  the  resignation  of  Lieut.  Turpin,  he  was  elected  to  fill 
it,  and  served  in  this  capacity  about  a  jear.  The  Second 
Georgia  Battalion  having  become  a  part  of  the  brigade  of  Gen. 
A.  li.  AVright,  he  was  tendered  and  accepted  the  office  of 
Brigade  Inspector  on  his  staff.  He  remained  on  Gen.  Wright's 
staff  through  the  Gettj^sburg  campaign  and  until  the  winter  of 
1863,  when,  active  operations  in  the  field  having  temporarily 
ceased,  he  resigned  his  position  in  the  army  to  accept  a  seat  in 
the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  Confederate  Congress,  to 
which  he  had  been  elected  by  the  people  in  October  of  that 
year. 

After  the  close  of  the  Gettysburg  campaign  his  promotion 
for  gallant  service  was  recommended  by  Gen.  R.  H.  Anderson, 
the  division  commander,  and  also  by  Gen.  R.  E.  Lee.  On  the 
recommendation  thus  made,  without  his  knowledge,  a  commis- 
sion was  issued  and  tendered  him  as  Captain  in  the  Adjutant 
General's  department,  and  he  was  assigned  to  duty  with  that 
rank  on  Gen.  Wright's  staff,  but  l^^ving  been  elected  to  Con- 
gress, as  above  stated,  before  the  receipt  of  the  commission,  he 
declined  to  accept  it. 

In  the  Confederate  Congress  Judge  Anderson  became  a 
notable  figure,  and  took  a  conspicuous  part  in  the  debates  of 
that  bod}'  upon  the  important  questions  which  came  before  it 
in  those  troublous  daj's,  always  giving  his  earnest  support  to 
the  administration  in  its  efforts  to  prosecute  the  war  to  success- 
ful conclusion  and  achieve  the  independence  of  the  Confederate 
States. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  Judge  Anderson  came  home,  and, 
against  the  advice  of  friends,  who  persuaded  him  to  fly  tlie 
country,  remained  passively  awaiting  whatever  was  in  store  for 
him,  preferring  to  share  the  privations  of  his  familj^,  his  prop- 
erty having  been  swept  away,  to  escaping  possible  arrest  and 
prosecution.  For  over  a  j'ear  he  could  not  resume  the  practice 
of  his  profession,  there  being  none  except  military  courts,  and 
the  doors  of  these  being  barred  against  him,  but  on  therestora- 


38  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

tion  of  civil  government  he  and  his  partner,  Mr.  Lanier,  opened 
their  office  and  took  up  the  tangled  skein  of  life's  duties  where 
they  had  each  laid  it  down  years  before,  and  started  anew  to 
rebuild  their  shattered  fortunes.  They  soon  regained  their 
large  practice,  and  have  continued  from  that  day  to  this  one 
of  the  most  prominent,  popular,  and  successful  legal  firms  in 
the  State. 

For  many  years  after  the  war  Judge  Anderson  persistently 
declined  to  re-enter  political  life,  though  more  than  once  offered 
the  unanimous  nomination  of  his  party  (equivalent  to  an  elec- 
tion) as  member  of  Congress  from  his  district.  Soon  after  the 
removal  of  Mercer  University  to  Macon,  at  the  earnest  solici- 
tation of  the  trustees  and  faculty  he  accepted  a  professorship 
in  the  law  department  of  that  institution,  and  on  the  death  of 
Hon.  C.  B.  Cole  became  chairman  of  the  law  faculty.  This 
position  he  still  holds.  He  has  rendered  valuable  service  to 
the  university,  and  has  been  instrumental  in  training  and  edu- 
cating for  the  bar  many  o£  the  brightest  and  most  promising 
young  men  now  connected  with  the  legal  profession  in  the 
State.  In  1884  the  university  conferred  on  Judge  Anderson 
the  degree  of  LL.  D. 

Without  having  sought  it,  or  any  agency  or  solicitation  on 
his  part,  the  State  Democratic  Convention  tendered  Judge 
Anderson  the  nomination  for  Attorney  General  in  August, 
1880.  He  accepted  it,  and  was  elected  for  a  term  of  two  years. 
He  was  re-nominated  and  re-elected  in  1882,  again  in  1884,  and 
again  in  1886.  He  is  now  serving  his  fourth  term.  His  service 
in  this  position  has  been  phenomenally  strong  and  successful. 
He  has  brought  to  it  the  ripe  experience  of  manj^  years'  suc- 
cessful practice  at  the  bar,  careful  painstaking,  laborious  and 
methodical  study  of  every  question  that  has  come  before  him, 
and  the  opinions  he  has  delivered  deserve  to  stand  side  by  side 
with  tliose  of  the  ablest  deliverances  of  anj^  law  officer  in  the 
land.  In  the  courts  of  the  State,  and  of  the  United  States,  he 
has  met  as  able  lawyers  as  the  Union  can  produce,  and  the 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  39 

interests  of  the  State  have  never  suflFered  in  his  hands.  In  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  Ihiited  States,  conceded  to  be  the  ablest 
tribunal  of  last  resort  in  the  civilized  world,  Judge  Anderson 
has  argued  many  important  cases  in  a  manner  that  has  fi^e- 
quently  evoked  expressions  of  approval  from  different  members 
of  that  able  court. 

Such  is  a  brief  history,  without  eulogy  or  comment,  of  a  man 
whom  Georgia  honors  herself  in  honoring. 
4 


JtO  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.  JOHN  McINTOSH  KELL, 

ADJUTANT  GENERAL  OF  GEORGIA. 


Of  course  the  reader  of  tliese  brief  biographical  sketches  of 
the  men  now  in  public  life  in  Georgia,  has  long  ere  this  discov- 
ered that  this  book  does  not  aspire  to  give  detailed  histories  of 
the  lives  of  the  men  treated  of  in  its  pages.  The  most  that  is 
attempted  is  to  give  in  briefest  form  the  data  of  the  more 
salient  points  without  any  attempt  at  elaboration,  or  pretense 
of  being  full  and  complete.  To  write  a  history  of  the  gentle- 
man whose  name  stands  at  the  head  of  this  article  would  in 
itself  go  beyond  the  limits  of  the  entire  book. 

Captain  John  McIntosh  Kell,  the  present  Adjutant  General 
of  the  State  of  Georgia,  was  born  near  Darien,  Ga.,  in  1823.  He 
was  educated  at  Annapolis,  the  United  States  Naval  Academy, 
and  entered  the  navy  in  1841.  He  served  continuously  in  the 
Navy  of  the  United  States  until  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War, 
at  which  time  he  was  at  the  Pensacola  Naval  Yard.  When 
his  native  State  seceded  from  the  Union  he  resigned  his  com- 
mission, tendered  his  services  to  the  Confederate  govern- 
ment, and  was  placed  in  command  of  a  small  steamer  for 
coast  defence.  In  May,  1861,  Admiral  Semmes,  who  knew  and 
loved  Captain  Kell,  and  who  was  at  that  time  engaged  in 
htting  out  the  Sumter,  applied  for  him  as  his  Executive  officer, 
and  he  was  transferred  to  that  service.  He  subsequently  went 
with  Admiral  Semmes  to  the  ill-fated  Alabama,  and  his  gaUant 
service  on  these  two  vessels  have  been  for  years  part  of  the 
history  of  the  most  gigantic  struggle  of  modern  times,  and  a 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  J^l 

detailed  account  of  which  woukl  far  transcend  the  limits  of 
this  article. 

After  the  Alabama  was  sunk,  and  Captain  Kell  returned  to 
the  Confederacy^  he  liad  command  of  the  ironclad  ''Richmond" 
in  the  James  river,  but  his  health  failing  him  during  this  ser- 
vice he  was  at  home  on  sick  leave  at  the  time  of  the  surrender. 

Since  the  war  Captain  Kell  has  lived  a  quiet,  retired  life, 
from  which  he  was  called  by  Governor  Gordon  when  he  became 
Governor,  and  tendered  his  present  position.  He  has  a  lovely 
home  at  Sunnj^side,  on  the  Macon  and  Western  Railroad,  pre- 
sided over  by  his  charming  wife,  formerly  Miss  Julia  Blanche 
Monroe,  of  Macon,  to  whom  he  was  married  in  1856,  and  who 
has  proven  a  true,  brave  and  devoted  companion. 

In  the  life  and  character,  thus  briefly  epitomized,  the  histo- 
rian of  the  future  who  writes  in  detail  of  the  men  of  to-day 
will  find  much  of  public  interest. 


Jt2  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.  CHARLES  C.  KIBBEE, 

JUDGE    SUPERIOR    COURTS,    OCONEE    CIRCUIT, 


To  make  an  upriglit,  fearless  Judge,  who  does  his  duty  at  all 
times  and  under  all  circumstances,  without  fear,  favor  or  affec- 
tion, and  be  at  the  same  time  a  j)opular  citizen,  requires  quali- 
ties that  few  men  possess.  The  subject  of  this  sketch  is  proof 
of  the  fact  that  it  can  be  done.  There  are  few,  if  any,  more 
popular  men  iii  public  life  to-day  than  Judge  Kibbee,  and  yet 
that  he  makes  an  admirably  just  and  faithful  ofhcer  is  the  tes- 
timony of  all  who  know  him. 

Charles  C.  Kibbee  was  born  in  Macon,  Georgia,  August  20th, 
1839.  He  graduated  at  Princeton,  in  the  class  of  1857,  and  hav- 
ing determined  to  make  the  law  his  profession,  entered  upon 
the  study  with  the  late  lamented  Gen.  Thomas  R.  R.  Cobb,  at 
Athens,  Georgia.  He  completed  the  course  and  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  in  1858  at  Watkinsville,  then  the  county  site  of 
Clarke  county,  when  only  nineteen  years  of  age,  and  entered  at 
once  upon  the  practice  at  Hawkinsville,  Pulaski  county,  where 
he  has  since  continuously  resided.  He  entered  into  partner- 
ship with  the  late  Col.  William  H.  Dawson,  and  the  firm  of 
Daw^son  &  Kibbee  had  a  large  and  lucrative  practice  through- 
out that  se(!tion  of  the  State. 

Answering  the  first  call  to  aims  that  resounded  through  the 
South,  Mr,  Kibbee  entered  the  Confederate  service  as  orderly 
sergeant  of  Co.  G,  Tenth  Georgia  Regiment,  March,  1801 ,  and 
served  through  the  war  between  the  States,  participating  in  all 
the  campaigns  of  Lee's  army,  as  also  the  campaign  of  Long- 
stkeet's  corps,  beginning  at  Chickamauga  and  ending  with  the 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


siege  of  Knoxville.  From  sergeant  he  was  promoted  through 
all  the  various  ranks  to  the  position  of  Lieutenant  Colonel  of 
the  gallant  Tenth  Georgia  Regiment,  receiving  the  last-named 
commission  for  conspicuous  gallantry  on  the  bloody  field  of 
Cold  Harbor,  in  the  Valley  campaign. 

Returning  home  from  the  Avar  Col.  Kibbee  resumed  the  practice 
of  his  profession,  but  his  fellow-citizens  called  him  from  private 
life  to  serve  them  in  the  Legislature  in  l<S65-6.  In  1868  he  was 
a  delegate  to  the  State  Democratic  Convention.  In  1870  was 
elected  to  the  Senate  to  fill  an  unexpired  term,  and  was  re- 
elected without  opposition  in  1872.  He  served  as  Senator  from 
the  Fourteenth  Senatorial  District  from  1870  to  1876,  both  in- 
clusive. Those  were  troul)lous  times.  The  Republican  party 
had  been  in  full  sway ;  extravagance  and  pillage  had  run  riot. 
The  State's  finances  were  in  chaotic  confusion,  and  upon  the 
accession  of  the  Democracy  to  jMnver  in  the  councils  of  the 
State  a  herculean  task  confronted  them.  The  State's  credit 
was  trembling  in  the  balance,  vast  amounts  of  illegal  bonds  had 
l)een  issued,  and  the  Legislature  was  called  upon  to  bi-ing  order 
out  of  confusion,  rectify  mistakes,  pass  needed  legislation,  and 
recuperate  an  exhausted  treasury. 

As  Cliairman  of  the  Finance  Committee  of  the  Senate,  upon 
Col.  KiBHEE  devolved  in  large  measure  this  tremendous  under- 
taking. He  conducted  the  examination  of  the  State  treasury, 
and  was  appointed  by  Governor  Smith  to  examine  and  report 
upon  the  bonded  debt  of  the  State,  and  also  the  accounts  of 
Henry  Clews,  who  had  been  the  financial  agent  of  the  State 
under  Re})ubli('an  rule.  To  his  eai-nest,  fearless,  faithful  and 
competent  work  in  this  capacitj'  tlu>  i)eo[)le  of  tl>e  State  are 
indel)ted  for  the  saving  of  many  thousands  of  dollars,  Avhich 
but  for  it  would  have  been  wrung  from  their  hard  earnings. 

Retiring  some  years  since;  from  active  participation  in  j)oli- 
tics.  Col.  Kibbee  devoted  himself  to  the  practice  of  his  profes- 
sion. More  than  once  enthusiastic  friends  have  i)ressed  his 
claims  for  Congressional  honors,  but  wedded  to  his  profession 


u 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


he  has  not  sought  preferments  outside  of  such  as  it  might  offer. 
He  was  elected  by  the  General  Assembly  in  1<S84  to  his  present 
position,  in  which  he  has  given  universal  satisfaction,  made  a 
record  as  an  able  and  painstaking  jurist,  and  preserved  un- 
spotted the  judicial  ermine.  Judge  Kibbee  is  a  prominent  Odd 
Fellow,  having  been  Grand  Master  for  the  State,  of  that  order, 
and  representative  to  the  Grand  Lodge  of  the  United  States. 

This  is  but  a  brief  capitulation  of  the  salient  points  in  the 
life  of  a  man  who  has  faithfullj^  served  his  people  in  every 
station  to  which  he  has  been  called.  He  has  a  charming  family 
and  a  happy  home,  where  he  finds  the  sweetest  pleasure  of  his 
life  among  his  cherished  household  gods. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  45 


HON.  WILLIAM  ARNOLD  HUFF, 

REPRESENTATIVE    FROxM    THE    COUNTV    OF    BIBB. 


The  subject  of  this  sketch  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
men  in  the  General  Assembly  of  Georgia.  If  there  are  any 
self-made  men  he  is  one,  and  the  compiler  regrets  exceedingly 
that  he  has  been  unable  to  secure  the  data  to  give  in  full  the 
details  of  a  career  that  is  as  remarkable  as  it  would  be  inter- 
esting. 

Born  in  the  country,  and  l)rought  up  on  a  farm,  young  Huff 
went  through  all  the  hardships  and  rigors  of  such  a  life;  fre- 
quently, it  is  said,  hauling  wood  through  the  streets  of  the  city 
of  which  he  was  afterwards  for  many  years  the  Mayor,  and 
one  of  its  wealthy  and  prominent  citizens.  In  his  early  man- 
hood he  was  for  a  long  time  engaged  in  railroading,  rising 
from  the  lowest  position  up  to  conductor,  and  "pulled  a  bell 
line"  through  many  a  long  night  and  busy  day. 

Subsequently  he  entered  upon  mercantile  pursuits  in  Macon, 
and  was  for  many  years  one  of  its  most  prominent  wholesale 
merchants.  He  was  for  many  years  Maj^or  of  the  city,  and  it 
was  during  his  administration  that  the  city  debt  was  bonded, 
the  Central  City  Pai-k  laid  out  aiul  beautihed  into  one  of  the 
loveliest  spots  in  the  South,  free  school  buildings  erected,  and 
many  other  things  done  that  has  tended  to  i)ut  the  city  forward 
as  one  of  the  livest  and  most  important  cities  in  the  coimtry. 

In  1886  Mr.  Huff  was  elected  to  the  General  Assembly,  and 
has  made  one  of  the  most  progressive,  practical  and  valual)le 
members  of  that  body. "^  He  has  devoted  much  time  and  study 


J^e  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

to  the  convict  question,  and  is  the  foremost  apostle  of  the  move- 
ment looking  to  a  reformation  of  our  present  prison  system. 

Mr.  Huff  was  an  important  factor  in  all  legislative  questions 
during  the  last  session,  but  is  a  worker  and  thinker  rather  than 
an  orator.  When  he  does  speak,  however,  it  is  to  the  point, 
and  one  who  had  met  him  in  debate  during  last  session  said  he 
''could  put  more  honey  in  his  words,  and  more  stings  in  his 
sentences,  than  any  man  alive." 

Of  a  restless,  nervous  temperament,  Mr,  Huff  is  energetic, 
tireless  and  indomitable  in  the  advocacy  of  that  which  he 
deems  right  and  proper.  Peculiarly  cordial  and  social  in  his 
manners,  he  makes  friends  easily,  and,  taken  all  in  all,  is  one 
of  the  most  popular  men  to-day  in  public  life  in  Georgia. 


J,8 


REPRESENT  A  TIVE  GEOR  GIANS. 


V\Uv\\'^  ^vx\\v 


i:\itWVVVPViV 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  Jfi 


HON.     ROBERT     U.     HARDEMAN, 

TREASURER    OF    THE    STATE    OF    GEORGIA. 


Robert  Ulla  Hardeman,  Treasurer  of  the  State  of  Geoi-ji^ia, 
Avas  borii  in  Macon,  Georgia,  November  22,  1838.  His  father 
was  Thomas  Hardeman,  who  was  for  many  years  a  resident  of 
Putnam  county,  tilling  for  a  long  while  the  oflftce  of  Sheritf,  and 
Avas  also  Clerk  of  the  Superior  Court.  He  was  a  fine  business 
man,  and  was  the  agent  at  Eatonton  of  the  Bank  of  the  State 
of  Georgia.  His  wife  was  Miss  Sarah  B.  Sparks  before  mar- 
riage. Of  the  sons  of  this  marriage  Hon.  Thomas  Hardeman, 
Jr.,  was  late  member  of  Congress  from  the  State  at  large,  and 
the  other  is  the  present  Treasurer,  the  subject  of  this  sketch. 

R.  U.  Hardeman  was  educated  at  Emory  College,  Oxford, 
Georgia,  and  graduated  in  18.")8  in  the  class  with  Dr.  Haygood, 
Dr.  Hopkins,  at  present  the  President  of  Emory ;  Hon.  W.  T. 
Revile,  editor  of  the  Meriwether  Vindicator,  and  other  dis- 
tinguished Georgians.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  war  Mr.  Harde- 
man volunteered  and  entered  the  Confederate  army  with  the 
celebrated  Floj^d  Rifles,  of  Macon.  He  served  throughout  the 
war,  and  surrendered  at  Appomattox. 

After  the  war  he  entered  mercantile  pursuits,  which  he  fol- 
lowed for  several  years.  In  ]87()  he  was  tendered  a  i)Osition  in 
the  Comptroller  General's  office,  and  in  this  position  became  an 
expert  on  the  financial  and  tax  affairs  of  the  State.  In  1884 
he  was  nominated  for  Treasurer  of  the  State  on  the  Democratic 
ticket,  and  was  elected,  and  was  re-elected  to  the  same  office  in 
1886. 


50  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

In  tlie  Treasurer's  office  Mr.  Hardeman  has  made  a  most 
envial)le  record,  and  rendered  valuable  service  to  the  State. 
Daring  his  first  term  $3,455,000  of  the  State's  bonds  bearing  7 
per  cent,  interest  matured,  and  Mr.  Hardeman  was  chiefly 
instrumental  in  having  issued  a  new  series  of  bonds  bearing 
only  4i  per  cent,  interest,  which,  through  his  excellent  manage- 
ment, were  sold  at  a  premium  of  five-sixteenths,  the  State  thus 
making  not  only  the  i:)remium,  but  saving  annually  2h  per  cent, 
upon  her  bonded  debt.  The  record  is  one  of  which  any  public 
officer  might  well  be  proud.  Yet  in  the  prime  of  life,  and  his 
mental  and  physical  vigor,  he  bids  fair  to  enjoy  many  years  of 
usefulness  to  his  people  and  State. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  51 


HON.  EVAN  P.  HOWELL, 

CAPITAL    COMMISSIONER. 


Capt.  Evan  Park  Howell  is  the  Atlanta  member  of  the 
Commission.  He  is  the  oldest  son  of  the  late  Judge  Claek 
Howell,  and  was  born  in  Milton  countj",  Georgia,  December 
10,  1839.  When  Capt.  Howell  was  in  his  eleventh  year  his 
father  settled  in  Atlanta,  and  resided  there  for  several  years. 

He  graduated  at  the  Georgia  JNIilitary  Institute,  at  Marietta, 
in  1859,  and  in  the  j^ear  following  graduated  from  the  Lumpkin 
Law  School,  Athens.  He  then  went  to  Sandersville  and  began 
the  practice  of  law  with  Judge  James  S.  Hook. 

He  was  married  in  1861  to  Miss  Julia  A.  Erwix,  of  South 
Carolina,  and  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war  entered  the  Confeder- 
ate service.  He  organized  and  commanded  Howell's  Batterj^ 
throughout  the  war,  serving  in  Virginia  and  Georgia  with  Cle- 
burne's Division.  His  battery  was  actively  engaged  in  almost 
all  the  important  battles  against  Sherman  in  the  famous 
'"March  to  the  Sea."  He  was  a  gallant  soldier,  and  his  cool 
and  indifferent  manner  while  under  heavy  fire  was  a  matter  of 
remark  among  his  command,  and  served  to  show  the  dauntless 
spirit  and  unflinching  bravery  of  the  man  and  soldier. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  he  again  moved  to  Atlanta,  entered 
journalism  with  the  Atlanta  Intellujencer,  and  afterward  re- 
sumed the  practice  of  law,  having  as  his  partner  the  late  Judge 

CiNCINNATUS  PeEPLES. 

During  his  residence  in  Atlanta  he  has  served  several  times 
in  the  Aldermanic  Board  of  the  city,  and  for  a  time  took  great 
interest  in  the  volunteer  fire  department. 


52  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

He  also  served  four  years  as  Solicitor  General  of  the  Atlanta 
circuit,  during  which  time  his  great  energy,  aided  by  his  elo- 
quent speech  and  superior  knowledge  of  law,  proved  wonder- 
fully effective  in  the  majority  of  cases  of  the  State  versus 
offenders. 

In  1876  he  was  elected  to  rej)resent  the  Thirty-fifth  District 
in  the  State  Senate,  and  was  re-elected  in  1878. 

He  was  a  delegate  to  the  National  Democratic  Convention 
which  nominated  Mr.  Tilden  for  the  Presidency.  He  was  also 
a  delegate  from  the  State  at  large  to  the  conventions  which 
nominated  Gen.  Hancock  in  1880  and  Gov.  Cleveland  in 
1884. 

In  1876  he  purchased  an  interest  in  the  Atlanta  Constitution, 
and  became  President  of  the  Constitution  Publishing  Company 
and  editor-in-chief  of  the  paper,  which  position  he  has  since 
held. 

Upon  the  death  of  Commissioner  Benjamin  E.  Crane  Capt. 
Howell  was  appointed  by  the  Governor  to  fill  the  vacancy. 
Since  his  connection  with  the  Commission  he  has  been  not  only 
regular  but  punctual  in  his  attendance  at  its  meetings,  giving 
at  all  times  serious  thought  to  even  the  minute  affairs  of  the 
charge  given  to  the  Commission. 

Soon  after  the  administration  of  national  affairs  passed  into 
Democratic  hands  President  Cleveland  tendered  to  Capt. 
Howell  the  appointment  of  Consul  to  Manchester.  For  purely 
personal  reasons  Capt.  Howell  declined  to  accept  this  dis- 
tinguished honor. 

He  is  a  man  of  great  personal  magnetism,  and  his  friends  are 
thickly  scattered  throughout  the  State.  Appreciating  his 
superior  qualities  as  a  man  they  constantly  seek  to  thrust  upon 
him  the  distinguislied  honors  which  they  feel  he  so  justly 
merits. 


H 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.  W.  A.  LITTLE, 

SPEAKER    HOUSE    REPRESENTATIVES. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  55 


HON.  WILLIAM   A.  LITTLE, 

REPRESENTATIVE  FROM  THE  COUNTY  OF  MUSCOGEE,  AND  SPEAKER 
OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES. 


The  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives  is  a  most  im- 
portant and  arduous  position.  To  fill  it  successfully  and  ac- 
ceptably requires  not  only  talent  of  a  high  order,  but  quick 
perception,  firmness  and  discretion,  coupled  with  never-failing 
coiu'tesy,  as  well  as  a  mastery  of  the  science  of  parliamentary 
law  and  precedent.  All  of  these  make  a  combination  so  rare 
that  few  men  are  found  who  possess  the  full  and  rounded 
character  which  they  go  to  complete. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  present  Speaker  of  the 
House  is  one  of  the  finest  presiding  officers  who  have  wielded 
the  gavel  over  that  body.  Possessing  in  large  degree  all  the 
accomplishments  above  noted,  combined  with  a  keen  sense  ot 
justice,  a  smooth  temper,  pleasant  address,  and  popular  man- 
ners, no  man  who  has  ever  occupied  the  position  has  lent  to  it 
more  grace,  dignity  and  honor,  than  tlie  gentlenum  who  at 
present  presides  over  the  deliberations  of  the  House. 

AViLi.iAM  A.  Little  is  a  native  of  Talbot  county,  Georgia, 
where  he  grew  to  manhood.  He  had  but  just  begun  to  look 
about  him  for  his  life  work  when  the  civil  war  broke  over  the 
land,  and  he  entered  the  Confederate  army  and  served  through 
the  struggle,  coming  out  with  the  rank  of  Captain  of  cavalry. 
After  the  war  he  studied  law,  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  be- 
gan the  practice  at  Talbotton,  in  his  native  county.  Shortly 
afterward  he  was  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  State  Senate.  He 
was  appointed  by  Gov.  Smith  Solicitor  General  of  the  Chatta- 


56  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

hoochee  circuit  in  1872,  and  removed  to  Columbus.  When  the 
Constitutional  Convention  of  1877  was  called  he  was  elected  to 
that  body,  in  which  he  served  with  distinction,  being  the  origi- 
nator and  champion  of  many  of  the  reforms  brought  about  by 
that  instrument.  In  1882  he  was  elected  to  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives from  Muscogee,  and  served  in  the  session  of  1882-3 
as  chairman  of  the  Finance  Committee,  the  most  important  in 
the  body.  He  was  re-elected  in  1884,  and  upon  the  assembling 
of  the  body  was  chosen  Speaker.  His  record  in  the  position 
was  so  eminently  satisfactory  that  when  his  people  returned 
him  to  the  present  House  he  was  unanimously  chosen  for  the 
same  position. 

The  limits  of  this  article  do  not  admit  going  into  the  details 
of  the  Speaker's  legislative  record.  He  has  done  much  since 
he  has  been  in  the  House  that  has  been  of  value  to  the  State. 
He  was  an  ardent  champion  of  the  bill  establishing  the  Tech- 
nological School  by  the  State,  and  he  takes  a  just  pride  in  this 
work.  The  only  time  the  writer  has  ever  seen  him  yield  the 
gavel  and  come  down  to  the  floor  to  participate  in  a  debate  was 
during  the  last  session,  upon  a  proposition  to  withhold  the  ap- 
propriation from  this  institution,  upon  which  he  made  an  argu- 
ment so  clear,  able  and  convincing  as  to  challenge  the  hearty 
applause  of  the  House  and  galleries. 

The  meagreness  of  detail  and  data  in  this  brief  sketch  is  due 
to  the  innate  modesty  of  the  man,  the  compiler  having  been 
compelled  to  rely  upon  such  as  he  could  gather  from  the  friends 
of  the  Speaker.     None  can  regret  this  more  than  the  writer. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  57 


HON.  FRANK    L.  HARALSON, 

STATE    LIBRARIAN. 


Frank  L.  Haralson,  the  present  efficient  State  Librarian,  a 
son  of  Hon.  T.  J.  Haralson,  of  Union  county,  his  mother  hav- 
ing been  before  marriage  Miss  Mary  A.  Logan,  of  White 
county,  was  born  in  Union  county,  Georgia,  January  8, 1853. 

He  received  the  rudiments  of  an  education  in  the  common 
schools  of  the  county,  and  subsequently  attended  the  North 
Georgia  Agricultural  College,  at  Dahlonega,  being  the  first 
student  enrolled  when  that  institution  was  established.  He 
subsequently  graduated  at  the  University,  Athens,  Georgia,  in 
1875. 

Mr.  Haralson,  after  completing  his  education,  entered  upon 
the  study  of  law,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1875,  and 
entered  upon  the  practice  at  Cleveland,  White  county. 

In  January,  1877,  when  Gov.  Colquitt  came  into  office,  Mr. 
Haralson  was  appointed  by  him  to  the  office  of  State  Li- 
brarian, and  has  held  the  position  continuously  since  that  time, 
having  been  reappointed  by  Gov.  Colquitt,  again  by  Gov.  Mc- 
Daniel,  and  lastly  by  Gov.  Gordon. 

On  March  26, 1883,  Mr.  Haralson  was  married  to  Miss  Lula 
Small,  sister  of  Rev.  Sam  W.  Small,  the  evangelist,  a  most 
lovely  and  accomplished  lady.  No  man  who  has  ever  held  the 
position  has  given  more  general  satisfaction  to  those  having 
business  with  the  department  over  which  he  presides. 


58  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.  WILLIAM   C.  GLENN, 

REPRESENTATIVE    FROM    THE    COUNTY    Q¥    WHITFIELD, 


The  stranger  who  would  look  over  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives from  the  gallery  or  any  other  point  of  vantage  would  be 
almost  sure  to  inquire  the  name  of  this  gentleman.  His  face 
would  attract  attention  anywhere,  and  among  the  active,  bright 
and  brainy  young  men  who  make  up  so  large  a  part  of  the 
General  Assembly,  he  easily  takes  rank  as  among  the  first  of 
the  legal  lights  of  the  House. 

Mr.  Glenn  was  born  in  Chattooga  county,  Georgia,  December 
31,  1855,  and  consequently  is  now  but  hardly  in  the  prime  of 
his  intellectual  and  mental  vigor.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar 
at  an  early  age,  and  since  that  time  has  been  so  assiduous  a 
student  that  few  men  at  his  time  of  life  are  so  well  equipped. 
He  has  not  only  been  a  student  of  books,  but  of  men,  and  his 
keen  judgment  of  human  nature  aids  him  not  a  little  in  those 
hot  legal  and  political  contests  in  which  he  has  become  known 
and  recognized  as  a  power  throughout  his  section. 

While  Mr.  Glenn  never  entered  any  political  contest  on  his 
own  account  until  the  canvass  for  his  present  seat,  he  has  al- 
most ever  since  his  majority  been  a  close  observer  of  men  and 
measures,  and  not  unfrequently  his  voice  has  been  raised  in 
elotpient  measure  to  give  his  fellow-citizens  the  benefit  of  his 
pronounced  convictions  upon  public  questions.  Notably  in  the 
last  Gubernatorial  campaign  his  voice  rang  from  many  a  stump 
in  advocacy  of  Gov.  Gordon,  and  though  he  met  and  bearded 
veteran  campaigners,  held  his  own  and  came  away  witli  his  full 
share  of  the  laurels. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  69 

This  brings  us  to  say  that  as  an  orator  Mr.  Glenn  has  many 
of  the  graces  that  charm  and  capture  assemblages  of  men. 
Always  earnest,  often  truly  eloquent,  he  garnishes  the  readj^ 
flow  of  words  with  such  a  wealth  of  illustration,  classic,  comic 
and  convincing,  that  it  is  alwaj'^s  a  pleasure  to  listen  to  him. 
Amid  it  all  he  never  forgets  the  courtesy  of  the  true  gentleman, 
and  even  his  opponents  are  his  friends,  and  ready  as  any  to 
acknowledge  his  genius. 

In  the  present  House  Mr.  Glenn  is  a  member  of  the  Com- 
mittees on  Judiciary,  Corporations,  Labor  and  Lal)or  Statistics, 
as  well  as  others  of  less  importance.  On  the  first  named  he  has 
done  much  important  work,  and  as  chairman  of  the  joint  com- 
mittee to  inquire  whether  an  act  incorporating  a  railroad  was  a 
local  or  special  bill,  submitted  a  report  that  challenged  the  ad- 
miration of  the  House  by  its  strong  grasp  and  clear  presenta- 
tion of  the  points  involved  in  the  question. 


^A^^ 


60  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.  JUDSON  L.  HAND, 

SENATOR    FROM    THE    EIGHTH    DISTRICT    OF    GEORGIA. 


Hon.  J.  L.  Hand  was  born  in  Houston  county,  near  Perry, 
in  this  State,  March  20,  1851,  and  spent  his  boyhood  on  liis 
father's  country  place,  "Rocky  Hill,"  ten  miles  east  of 
Americus.  Too  young  to  enter  the  army,  he  organized  the 
Pleasant  Grove  Guards,  a  body  of  boys  like  himself,  was 
elected  Captain,  and  many  were  the  bloodless  battles  they 
fought  in  mimicry  of  the  fearful  contest  then  being  waged  on 
the  stage  of  national  warfare.  He  is  the  son  of  Columbus  W. 
Hand,  and  grandson  of  Henry  H.  Hand,  of  Burke  county.  His 
mother  was  a  daughter  of  Mr.  Isaac  A.  Bower,  of  Milledge- 
ville,  Georgia. 

In  1868  Mr.  Hand  entered  the  University  of  Georgia,  gradu- 
ating from  that  institution  with  high  honors  in  1871.  Casting 
about  him  for  employment,  and  witb  no  prejudice  against  honest 
manual  labor,  he  engaged  as  fireman  in  a  steam  saw  mill,  and 
so  faithfull}^  did  he  perform  his  duty  and  so  thoroughly  did  he 
familiarize  himself  with  every  detail  of  the  business  that  he 
rose  step  by  step  through  all  the  gradations  of  the  business 
from  this  Inimble  position  until  to-day,  when  he  counts  among 
his  possessions  an  interest  in  three  large  saw  mills,  four  turpen- 
tine distilleries,  and  is  proprietor  of  a  large  and  flourishing 
mercantile  business  in  the  town  of  Pelham,  on  the  Savannah, 
Florida  and  Western  Railway.  He  is  a  successful  business 
man,  and  all  in  all  a  fair  type  of  the  energetic,  pushing  young 
Southerner.  He  has,  in  addition  to  his  other  interests,  takeii  a 
lively  and  successful  interest  in  agricultural  pursuits. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  61 

In  1877  Mr.  Hand  was  married  to  Miss  Emma  Collinsworth, 
a  daughter  of  Mr.  Fletcher  Collinsworth,  of  Sumter  county. 
Two  children,  girls,  aged  respectively  seven  and  five,  have 
blessed  the  union.  He  has  a  handsome  home,  filled  with  the 
comforts,  conveniences  and  luxuries  of  life,  and  finds  his  high- 
est enjoyment  in  the  sacred  precincts  of  that  charmed  circle. 

Mr.  Hand  was  elected  in  1886  to  represent  his  Senatorial  dis- 
trict, composed  of  the  counties  of  Mitchell,  Miller  and  Decatur, 
in  the  State  Senate,  in  which  body  he  has  taken  high  rank  as  a 
capable,  thoughtful  and  earnest  legislator.  He  is  chairman  of 
the  Committee  on  State  Library,  and  a  member  of  those  on 
Finance,  Railroads,  Banks,  Public  Property,  Engrossing  and 
Enrollment.  Personally  he  is  a  gentleman  of  pleasant  address, 
makes  friends  easily,  and  is  deservedly  popular  among  those 
who  know  him. 


62 


REPBESENTA  TIVE  GEOR  OIANS. 


5>^      t/  yt^-C-ty^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  63 


HON.  A.  S.  CLAY, 

REPRESENTATIVE    FROM     THE    COUNTY     OF    COBB,    AND    SPEAKER 
PRO    TEM,    OF    THE    HOUSE    OF    REPRESENTATIVES. 


Few  men  are  lilessed  with  a  happier  foculty  of  making  strong 
fi"iends  and  holding  them  than  the  suhject  of  this  sketch.  The 
strong  personahty  of  the  man,  his  high  sense  of  hdnor,  combine 
with  genial  social  traits  that  make  him  a  prime  favorite  with  all 
with  whom  he  comes  in  contact. 

A.  S.  Clay  is  the  son  of  a  farmer,  W.  J.  Clay,  and  Ann  Clay. 
Was  born  September  25th.  1858,  near  Powder  Spring,  in  Cobb 
connty.  He  remained  npon  the  farm  nntil  the  age  of  sixteen, 
when  he  went  to  Palmetto  and  attended  school  for  two  years. 
He  then  taught  a  year,  went  to  Hiwassee  College.  Tennessee, 
for  three  years,  graduating  in  1875.  Having  borrowed  money 
to  complete  his  education,  he  taught  for  two  years  and  repaid 
it.  reading  law  at  nights  and  spare  moments  during  the  time, 
and  had  two  hundred  dollars  left.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar 
in  the  fall  of  1877,  and  entered  at  once  upon  the  practice.  As 
is  the  case  with  most  young  barristers,  practice  came  slowly  at 
fii-st,  but  he  worked  and  waited,  and  in  the  course  of  two  or 
three  years  prospects  brightened  and  business  came  to  seek 
him.  From  then  to  now  this  has  constantly  increased,  until  he 
now  enjoys  a  large  and  lucrative,  as  well  as  constantly  growing 
practice.  He  has  accumulated  a  handsome  little  property  by 
his  practice,  and  bids  fair  to  become  wealth5\ 

Mr.  Clay's  first  office  was  councilman  of  Marietta,  to  which 
he  was  elected  in  1880,  and  re-elected  at  the  expiration  of  his 
first  term,  but  resigned.     He  was  nominated  to  represent  his 


64  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

county  in  the  Legislature  in  1884,  and  was  elected  by  large  a 
majority.  In  1886  he  carried  every  militia  district  in  the 
county,  and  was  unarumously  nominated  for  re-election  by  the 
county  convention,  A.  S.  McClesky  being  nominated  as  his 
colleague.  The  Knights  of  Labor  put  out  two  candidates,  and 
after  a  spirited  contest  both  nominees  were  elected,  Mr.  Clay 
leading  the  ticket  by  a  large  majority.  Just  after  his  nomina- 
tion to  the  House  the  Senatorial  convention  of  the  Thirty-fifth 
District  met  in  Atlanta  and  remained  in  session  a  whole  week. 
On  the  1200tli  ballot  Mr.  Clay  was  unanimously  nominated. 
He  declined  the  nomination  on  the  ground  that  he  had  already 
accepted  a  nomination  to  represent  the  people  of  his  county  in 
the  House. 

In  November,  1881,  Mr.  Clay  was  married  to  Miss  Fannie 
White;  two  bright  boys,  one  five  and  the  other  one  year  old, 
are  the  fruits  of  the  happy  union.  He  is  a  member  of  the 
Methodist  church,  has  a  happy  home,  and  the  future  which 
stretches  before  him  lures  him  on  to  a  life  of  honor,  usefulness 
and  happiness. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  65 


HON.  JAMES  H.  BLOUNT, 

MEMBER    OF    CONGRESS    FROM    SIXTH    DISTRICT. 


Few  men  in  Georgia  are  better  known  than  Hon.  James  H. 
Blouxt,  Member  of  Congress  from  the  Sixth  District.  He  has 
been  continuonsly  in  public  life  for  nearly  fourteen  years  as  the 
incumbent  of  his  present  seat,  and  has  become  widely  and 
favorably  known  not  only  throughout  Georgia  but  all  over  the 
entire  countr3^ 

Mr.  Blount  was  born  in  Jones  county,  Georgia,  September 
12,  1837.  His  earl}^  life  and  education  was  that  of  most 
young  men  of  the  time,  and  upon  attaining  his  majority  he 
entered  upon  the  practice  of  law  at  Clinton,  in  the  county  of 
Jones.  After  a  number  of  years  successful  practice  at  the  bar, 
he  removed  to  Macon,  and  rapidly  won  his  way  to  the  top  of  a 
bar  known  and  admired  throughout  the  State  for  the  ability  of 
its  members. 

Mr.  Blount  was  first  elected  to  the  Forty-third  Congress, 
being,  if  we  mistake  not,  the  first  Democrat  elected  and  allowed 
to  take  his  seat  from  that  District  after  the  war.  He  was  re- 
elected to  the  Forty-fourth,  Forty-fifth,  Forty-sixth,  Forty-sev- 
enth, Forty-eighth  and  Fort^'-ninth  Congresses,  and  was  last 
year  again  chosen  by  his  people  and  will  take  his  seat  in  the 
Fiftieth  Congress,  and  should  he  live  to  finish  the  term  will 
have  completed  sixteen  years  of  Congressional  service.  There 
are  only  two  or  three  men  in  the  National  House  who  outrank 
him  in  the  number  of  years  of  continuous  service. 

Mr.  Blount's  record  in  Congress  is  well  known  througliout 
the  Union.     He  has  always  been  a  strict  economist,  and  the 


66  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

unrelenting  foe  of  wasteful  expenditure  and  jobs  of  all  kinds. 
So  stringent  has  he  been  on  this  line  as  to  frequently  subject 
him  to  harsh  criticism,  which,  however,  in  no  wise  altered  his 
course  or  purpose.  Since  the  elevation  of  Hon.  John  G.  Car- 
lisle to  the  Speakership  of  the  House  Mr.  Blount  has  been 
one  of  his  most  trusted  advisers,  and  is  a  recognized  leader  on 
the  Democratic  side. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  67 


HON.  JAMES  S.  BOYNTON, 

JUDGK    SUPERIOR    COURTS    FLINT    CIRCUIT. 


Judge  BoYNTON  was  born  in  Henrj^  county,  Georgia,  May  7, 
1833.  He  was  the  son  of  Elijah  S.  Boynton,  wlio  came  origi- 
nally from  Vermont,  and  of  Scotch  descent.  His  mother's 
maiden  name  was  Elizabeth  Moffet,  who  was  of  French  ex- 
traction and  belonged  to  an  old  South  Carolina  family. 

Judge  Boynton  had  few  advantages  in  early  life.  His  early, 
and  indeed  only  education,  was  derived  from  a  few  months' 
attendance  in  each  year  on  the  exercises  of  the  "old  field 
school "  of  those  days,  and  the  remainder  of  the  time  was 
spent  in  manual  labor  upon  the  farm  of  his  father.  One  of  his 
early  aml)itions  was  to  enter  upon  a  military  career,  and  he 
went  so  far  as  to  prepare  himself  to  enter  West  Point,  but  the 
death  of  his  father,  and  subsequentlj^  his  guardian,  upon  whom 
he  relied  for  aid,  made  this  course  impossible  and  forced  him  to 
turn  his  attention  to  other  pursuits. 

Choosing  law  as  a  profession,  he  entered  upon  tlie  study  at 
McDonough,  Georgia,  and  in  seven  weeks  mastered  it  suffici- 
ently to  be  admitted  to  the  bar.  In  1852  he  began  practice  at 
Monticello,  Jasper  county,  where  he  remained  until  1858,  when 
he  removed  to  Jackson,  Butts  county,  and  formed  a  partner- 
ship with  Col.  James  R.  Lyons.  In  1860  he  was  elected  Ordi- 
nary of  Butts  county.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  war  he  enlisted 
as  a  private  in  the  Thirtieth  Georgia  Regiment.  He  was 
elected  Major  of  the  regiment  from  the  ranks,  and  laid  down 
his  musket  to  take  up  a  sword.  He  was  promoted  first  to 
Lieutenant  Colonel  and  afterwards  to  Colonel ;  was  severely 


68  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


wounded  at  Decatur  on  the  22d  of  July,  1864,  returned  to  his 
regiment  as  soon  as  able,  and  remained  with  it  to  the  end. 

In  1866,  having  removed  his  family  to  Griffin  during  the  war, 
and  making  that  his  home  afterward,  he  was  elected  Judge  of 
the  County  Court.  He  \Yas  Mayor  of  Griffin  from  1869  to  1872. 
In  1880  he  was  elected  to  the  State  Senate,  and  upon  the  organi- 
zation of  that  body  was  unanimously  elected  President,  thus 
becoming  ex-offieio  Governor  of  the  State.  Upon  the  death  of 
Gov.  Alexander  H.  Stephens  he  succeeded  to  the  office,  and 
held  it  until  the  election  of  Hon.  Henry  D.  McDaniel,  when 
he  retired  to  private  life  and  the  practice  of  his  jjrofession.  In 
1886,  upon  the  resignation  of  Hon.  John  D.  Stewart,  Judge  of 
the  Superior  Courts  of  the  Flint  circuit.  Gov.  Boynton  was  ap- 
pointed to  hold  until  the  meeting  of  the  Legislature.  That 
body  elected  him  without  opposition  to  fill  Judge  Stewart's 
unexpired  term,  and  also  for  the  full  term  following,  which  will 
expire  January  1,  1891. 

Gov.  Boynton  was  married  to  Miss  Fannie  Loyall,  Decem- 
ber 2,  1852,  just  after  his  admission  to  the  bar.  She  bore  him 
two  sons,  and  died  in  1877.  He  was  married  the  second  time, 
April  30,  1883,  to  Mrs.  Susie  T.  Harris,  of  Walton  county,  a 
charming  and  most  estimable  lady. 


70 


REPRESENTA  TIVE  GEOR  GIANS. 


HON.  PHILIP  M.  RUSSELL, 

REPRESENTATIVE  CHATHAM  COUNTY. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  71 


HON.  PHILIP  M.  RUSSELL, 

REPRESENTATIVE    FROM    THE    COUNTY    OF    CHATHAM. 


No  more  refined,  cultured  and  honorable  constituency  in  the 
State  of  Georgia  has  representation  in  the  General  Assembly 
than  the  county  of  Chatham,  of  which  the  old  city  of  Savannah 
is  the  social  and  political  centre.  To  be  chosen  as  one  of  her 
Representatives  is  an  honor  of  which  any  man  might  well  feel 
proud. 

Of  her  present  representation,  Hon.  Philip  M.  Russell  is  in 
appearance  one  of  the  most  venerable  men  in  tlie  House,  and 
owing  to  his  long  and  honorable  public  service  is  widely  known 
and  universally  respected.  He  is  a  son  of  Isaac  Russell,  Esq., 
and  Perla  Sheftall  Russell,  and  was  born  in  Savannah,  De- 
cember 17,  1815.  His  ancestors  came  to  this  country  with 
Oglethorpe,  and  were  among  the  first  settlers  of  the  State,  and 
honorably  identified  with  the  history  of  the  War  of  Indepen- 
dence. 

Of  a  delicate  temperament  in  his  earlier  years,  Mr.  Russell 
failed  of  a  rudimentary  education,  but  the  will  and  energy  of 
his  nature  made  up  in  after  years  for  what  he  failed  to  gain  in 
childhood,  and  in  1833  he  commenced  the  study  of  law  with 
his  uncle,  Hon.  Mordecai  Sheftall,  Sr.,  a  leading  member  of 
the  bar,  and  for  several  years  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Common 
Pleas  and  Oyer  and  Terminer  of  the  City  of  Savannah. 

September  15, 1834,  Mr.  Russell,  the  subject  of  this  sketch, 

was  married  to  Miss  Elizabeth  C.  Ferre,  of  Philadelphia,  a 

descendant  of  Commodore  Springer,  U.  S.  N.      In  the  same 

year  he  accepted  the  appointment  of  Collector  for  the  Savan- 

6 


72  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

nah,  Ogeechee  and  Altamaha  Canal  Company,  In  1835  he  held 
his  first  office,  being  elected  Constable  of  his  district,  and  served 
in  this  capacity,  acting  in  the  meantime  incidentally  as  Depnty 
HherifF,  and  also  as  Deputy  United  States  Marshal.  In  June, 
1843,  he  was  elected  Sheriff  of  the  city  of  Savannah,  in  1844 
Justice  of  the  Peace.  While  holding  this  office  he  was  appoint- 
ed Collector  of  Customs.  In  1846  he  was  again  Justice  of  the 
Peace,  and  while  holding  this  office  was  elected  Clerk  of  the 
Court  of  Common  Pleas  and  Oyer  and  Terminer.  In  1853  he 
was  elected  City  Marshal  of  Savannah,  and  filled  that  office 
with  credit  for  two  years.  In  1855  he  continued  the  study  of 
law,  meanwhile  acting  as  Clerk  of  the  United  States  Courts, 
and  in  1856  was  elected  Clerk  of  the  City  Court  of  Savannah. 

Mr.  EussELL  has  always  taken  a  warm  interest  in  military 
affairs,  and  became  a  member  of  the  famous  "  Republican  Blues" 
in  1833.  At  the  organization  of  the  State  forces  by  Governor 
Brown  he  was  commissioned  as  Captain,  and  assigned  to  Har- 
kie's  Regiment,  Harrison's  Brigade,  where  he  served  until  in- 
capacitated from  typhoid  fever  and  discharged.  In  1863  he 
was  elected  to  the  Legislature,  and  re-elected  in  1865.  Being 
disfranchised  under  the  Reconstruction  Acts,  he  resumed  his 
position  as  Clerk  of  the  City  Court.  He  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  in  1871,  and  subsequently  the  Supreme  and  United  States 
Courts. 

In  1876  he  received  thirty-nine  of  the  forty-two  votes  present 
in  the  County  Democratic  Convention,  and  was  again  elected 
to  the  Legislature,  leading  his  ticket  by  seventy-two  votes,  and 
was  re-elected  in  1877  by  a  majority  of  two  hundred  and  ninety- 
nine  over  his  highest  opponent.  In  November,  1886,  he  was 
again  elected  to  the  Legislatui-e  by  a  majority  of  one  hundred 
and  ninety-four  over  the  highest  candidate  on  the  opposition 
ticket,  and  is  a  member  of  the  present  House. 

Such  is  in  brief  the  history  of  a  man  who  has  devoted  almost 
an  entire  lifetime  to  politics,  and  sei'ved  his  people  with  con- 
spicuous ability  and  untiring  energy.      He  has  been  Clerk  of 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


73 


the  City  Court  of  Savannah  for  about  thirty-four  years,  finding 
time  meanwhile  for  the  other  duties  we  have  mentioned.  He 
has  always  been  a  staunch  and  unflinching  Democrat,  com- 
manding the  confidence  of  his  fellow-citizens,  evidenced  by  the 
fact  that  whenever  he  has  been  the  nominee  of  his  party  he  has 
received  the  highest  vote  cast  for  the  ticket.  He  has  repre- 
sented his  party  in  numerous  conventions,  and  was  chairman 
of  the  committee  which  notified  the  late  Alexander  H.  Ste- 
phens of  his  nomination  for  Governor,  and  is  now  a  member  of 
the  Democratic  Executive  Committee  of  his  county. 

Mr.  Russell  is  a  Hebrew  in  religion,  and  his  whole  political 
course  has  been  in  the  direction  of  the  amelioration  of  the  con- 
dition of  the  laboring  classes,  among  whom  he  is  a  prime  favor- 
ite. He  is  personally  sociable,  easy  of  approach,  generous  to  a 
fault,  and  always  ready  to  aid,  with  purse,  hand  and  brain,  the 
cause  of  the  needy,  the  poor  and  oppressed. 


7^  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.    ALFRED    HOLT    COLQUITT, 

UNITED    STATES    SENATOR    FROM    GEORGIA. 


The  historian  who  essays  to  give  anything  like  a  complete 
history  of  Georgia  from  1845  to  the  present  time  will  have 
much  to  do  with  Alfred  H.  Colquitt.  He  has  been  a  promi- 
nent actor  in  so  many  scenes,  including  the  stirring  events  of 
the  late  gigantic  civil  war,  that  to  write  a  complete  history  of 
him  would  be  to  write  much  of  the  history  of  Georgia. 

Senator  Colquitt  was  born  in  Walton  county,  Georgia,  April 
20,  1824.  Of  the  splendid  ancestory  from  which  he  sprang 
there  is  no  space  in  this  article  to  speak.  Suffice  it  to  say  that 
there  was  much  in  it  of  which  he  might  be  proud.  He  received 
his  education  at  Princeton  College,  from  which  he  graduated  in 
1844.  He  at  once  studied  law,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar 
immediately  upon  reaching  his  majority,  in  1845.  In  1847, 
upon  the  breaking  out  of  the  Mexican  war,  he  volunteered  for 
the  defence  of  his  country,  and  served  as  a  staff  officer  with 
the  rank  of  Major  during  the  two  years  of  that  contest. 

After  the  Mexican  war  he  was  nominated  and  elected  to  the 
Thirty-third  Congress.  At  the  expiration  of  his  term  he  de- 
clined a  renomination,  and  retired  to  private  life.  At  the  solici- 
tation of  his  fellow-citizens  he  accepted  a  seat  in  the  Georgia 
Legislature  in  1859.  He  was  a  Presidential  elector  on  the 
Breckknridge  ticket  in  1860.  He  was  a  member  of  the  seces- 
sion convention  of  Georgia,  and  upon  the  secession  of  the  State 
from  the  Union  again  took  up  arms,  and  entered  the  Confed- 
erate service  as  Captain.  Subsequently  he  was  chosen  and 
commissioned   Colonel   of  the   Sixth    Georgia   Infantry,   later 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  75 

Brigadier  General,  and  at  the  close  of  the  war  was  Major  Gen- 
eral of  infantry.  At  the  blood}'  battle  of  Olustee,  Florida,  he 
behaved  with  such  conspicuous  gallantry  as  to  challenge  the 
admiration  of  the  Confederacy,  and  was  known  afterwards  as 
"the  hero  of  Olustee." 

After  the  close  of  the  war  Gen.  Colquitt  returned  to  agri- 
cultural pursuits,  and  was  for  a  number  of  j'cars  President  of 
the  iState  Agricultural  Society.  In  1876  he  was  elected  Gover- 
nor for  the  term  of  four  years.  In  1880  he  was  again  elected, 
after  a  hard-fought  campaign  in  which  he  was  opposed  by  Hon. 
Thomas  M.  Xoravood,  for  a  term  of  two  j^ears,  upon  the  ex- 
piration of  which  he  was  elected  to  the  United  States  Senate 
for  a  term  of  six  years,  which  will  expire  March  3,  1889. 

Such  is  a  brief  condensation  of  the  more  salient  points  in 
Senator  Colquitt's  political  career.  Of  his  charming  family, 
happy  home  life,  prominence  in  church  and  temperance  work 
in  his  own  State  and  throughout  the  Union  we  have  not  space 
here  to  speak.  They  are  part  of  the  history  of  the  times,  and 
familiar  to  most  readers  of  the  public  press. 


76 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.  MARK  A.  HARDIN, 


CLERK    OF    THE    HOUSE    OF    REPRESENTATIVES. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  77 


HON.  MARK  A.  HARDIN, 

CLERK    OF    THE    HOUSE    OF    REPRESENTATIVES. 


William  Hardin  was  a  prominent  and  well-known  citizen  of 
old  Cass,  now  Bartow  county,  in  his  day  and  generation.  He 
was  originally  of  Henry  count3%  and  was  sent  to  Cherokee 
count}^  by  Jackson  to  aid  in  removing  the  Indians,  having 
accomplished  which,  he  settled  in  Cass  county.  He  was  the 
first  Democrat  ever  elected  from  Cass  to  the  General  Assembly, 
to  which  he  was  repeatedly  sent  as  a  Senator.  He  was  Presi- 
dent of  the  Western  Bank  of  Georgia. 

Mark  A.  Hardin  is  the  son  of  William  Hardin.  His  mother 
was  before  her  marriage  Miss  Cloud,  of  Putnam,  and  was  at  one 
time  a  pupil  of  Wii-liam  H.  Seward,  when  that  afterwards 
famous  man  wielded  the  birch  in  a  country  school-house  in  that 
countJ^  The  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  in  McDonough, 
Heniy  county,  September  21,  1830.  His  education  began  in  the 
county  schools,  after  which  he  attended  for  four  years  the 
Couaseen  High  School.  In  1848  he  was  appointed  to  West 
Point,  but  after  eighteen  months  in  that  institution  he  resigned 
and  returned  home.  In  1851  he  was  married  to  Miss  Emma 
Sullivan,  of  Greenville,  S.  C,  and  tliere  have  been  born  to  them 
seven  children — five  daughters  and  two  sons. 

Mr.  Hardin  was  elected  to  the  General  Assembly  and  served 
during  the  sessions  of  1859-60.  In  1862  he  entered  the  Con- 
federate army  as  a  Captain  in  the  famous  Morgan's  cavalry.  He 
was  captured  in  1863  and  sent  to  Fort  LaFayette,  and  subse- 
quently transferred  to  Fort  Warren,  where  he  remained  until 


78 


REPRESENTA  TIVE  GEOR  GIA  NS. 


the  close  of  the  war,  being  the  first  prisoner  discharged  from 
that  institution  after  the  cessation  of  hostilities. 

For  several  years  after  the  war  Mr.  Hardin  devoted  himself  to 
agricultural  pursuits.  In  1868  he  was  the  Davis-Hall  caucus 
nominee  for  Clerk  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  was 
elected,  but  was  turned  out  in  1870,  under  the  reorganization 
had  under  the  reconstruction  acts.  In  1877  he  was  Assistant 
Secretary  of  the  Constitutional  Convention,  and  in  1878-9  was 
Assistant  Clerk  of  the  House  of  Representatives.  In  1880  he 
was  elected  Clerk  of  that  body,  and  has  held  the  position  con- 
tinously  since  that  time.  Few  men  in  the  State  have  as  wide  a 
personal  acquaintance,  and  none  have  more  friends. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  79 


HON.  .^XEAS  STACY  WAY, 

RErRESEXTATIVE    FROM    THE    COUNTY    OF    LIBERTY, 


This  gentleman  enjoys  the  distinction  of  being  one  of  the 
fe^v  Democratic  Representatives  fi-om  his  connty  since  the  war. 
The  colored  population  are  largel}"  in  the  majorit}^,  and  having 
heretofore  voted  the  Republican  ticket  almost  solidly,  have  been 
enabled  to  send  a  man  of  their  own  color  to  represent  them  in 
the  legislative  halls,  save  when,  from  irregularities  in  the  elec- 
tion, some  of  the  votes  were  throAvn  out  as  illegal.  In  the  con- 
test for  his  present  seat  Mr.  Way  had  a  clear  majority  of  nearly 
two  liundred,  having  polled  the  full  vote  of  his  party,  and 
drawn  largely  from  the  other  side. 

Mr.  Way  is  yet  quite  young,  having  been  born  in  Liberty 
county  August  22, 1857,  being  the  fourth  son  of  William  J.  and 
J  AXE  A.  AVay.  His  father — left  as  were  most  Southerners — in 
straightened  circumstances,  was  unable  to  educate,  as  he  desired, 
his  large  family  of  children;  so  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  by 
diut  of  his  own  exertions,  worked  out  an  education.  He  read 
law  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1879,  since  which  time  he  has 
diligently  pursued  the  practice  of  his  profession  with  gratifying 
success. 

In  1884  Mr.  Way's  county  sent  liim  as  a  delegate  to  the  Con- 
gressional Convention  of  the  First  District,  with  instructions  to 
present  the  name  of  its  favorite  son — Capt.  S.  D.  Brauwell — to 
that  bod}^  as  its  choice  for  this  office.  A  •"de^ldlock"  ensued  for 
several  days,  during  which  young  Way  measured  swords  with 
the  trained  political  managers  of  this  famous  old  district,  and 
bv  his  lovaltv  to  his  friend,  and  his  fidelitv  totlie  trust  confided 


^80  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

to  him  by  his  people,  won  the  admiration  of  the  people — not 
only  of  his  own  county,  but  the  entire  district.  His  speeches 
during  those  days  attracted  the  attention  of  all  who  heard  or 
read  them.  This  proceeding  was  repeated  again  in  1886,  and 
again  Mr.  Way  bore  himself  in  such  a  manner  as  to  add  new 
laurels  to  those  already  won. 

In  1885  the  State  Agricultural  Society  invited  Mr.  Way, 
through  its  Executive  Committee,  to  address  that  body,  and  his 
effort  attracted  wide  attention. 

In  the  last  election  Mr.  Way  was  put  forward  as  the  standard- 
bearer  of  his  party  and  elected,  as  already  noted.  In  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  while  he  has  been  modest,  he  has  not  hesitated  to 
express  pronounced  views  upon  such  legislation  as  commended 
itself  to  his  consideration,  and  has  made  a  punctual,  painstaking, 
industrious  and  efficient  member.  Mr.  AVay  is  at  yet  unmarried, 
and  has  ahead  of  him  a  career  that  promises  to  be  long  and 
useful. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  81 


HON.  WILLIAM  HENRY  ATWOOD, 

SENATOR    FROM    THE    SECOND    DISTRICT. 
(BY  H.  A.  DUNWOODY.) 


If  called  upon  to  answer  the  question, "Who  is  W.  H.  Atwood  ?" 
the  writer,  who  has  known  him  from  boyhood,  would  answer: 
"Capt.  Atwood  is  a  true  and  typical  Southern  gentleman,  of  the 
old  reghnej  who  lives  near  Darien,  Ga. 

No  title  of  nobility,  no  spurs  of  knighthood,  no  decoration 
bestowed  by  crowned  heads  upon  the  proudest  scion  of  nobility 
implies  such  nicety  of  honor,  such  social  refinements,  such 
warm-hearted  hospitality,  as  are  expressed  in  these  words.  They 
describe  a  race  peculiar  to  the  coast  of  the  Southland  in  ante- 
beUum  days,  not  inaptly  called  ''the  cavaliers  of  the  South." 

Born  in  the  county  of  Mcintosh  in  1836,  where  for  genera- 
tions his  ancestors  had  held  the  highest  social  position,  and 
nurtured  amid  the  refining  influences  peculiar  to  the  wealthy 
planter  of  the  South  before  the  war,  and  carrying  in  his  veins 
the  blood  of  that  noble  band  of  Highland  Scots  who  settled  that 
portion  of  our  State,  it  is  no  wonder  that  Mr.  Atwood  should 
bear  the  impress  of  the  true  gentleman,  and  charm  all  who  know 
him  by  his  genial  manners  and  versatile  accomplishments  of 
his  nature  and  education. 

On  the  paternal  side  he  is  descended  from  one  of  the  oldest 
Connecticut  families;  his  father,  fresh  from  his  Alma  Mater, 
having  cast  his  fortunes  with  the  South,  and  wooed  and  won 
Miss  McIntosh,  a  descendant  of  the  clans  of  McCoy,  McKenzie 
and  McIntosh,  warmed  for  generations  under  a  Southern  sky. 
It  is  no  wonder  that  such  a  union  should  have  resulted  in  a 


82  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

chivalric  and  noble  race,  of  which  the  subject  of  this  sketch  is 
the  oldest  surviving  male  representative. 

He  was  but  just  across  the  threshhold  of  manhood,  when  an- 
swering his  country's  call,  he  went  to  the  front  as  Captain  of 
a  troop  of  kindred  spirits  in  the  famous  Fifth  Georgia  Regi- 
ment, remained  true  to  his  manhood  and  his  country  through 
the  j^ears  of  "war's  dread  strife,"  and  surrendered  at  its  close 
his  stainless  sword  and  the  few  bleeding  survivors  who  had 
followed  him. 

Without  idle  repining  he  accepted  the  fiat  of  defeat,  and  set 
about  repairing  his  personal  fortunes  and  the  rehabilitation  of 
his  section.  Having  married  the  daughter  of  Mr.  James  R. 
Butts,  of  Macon,  he  made  his  home  in  the  country  of  his  birth. 
Not  seeking  preferment,  unassuming  and  modest,  his  fellow- 
citizens  brought  him  from  his  retirement  and  sent  him  to  the 
Lower  House  of  the  GeneralAssembly  in  1876.  In  1886  he  was 
their  choice  for  State  Senator,  and  has  discharged  the  duties  of 
both  positions  with  an  ability  and  devotion  to  duty  character- 
istic of  the  man. 


I 

I 


81 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.  ALLEN  D.  CANDLER, 

MEMBER    OF    CONGRESS    NINTH    DISTRICT. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  85 


HON.  ALLEN  D.  CANDLER, 

^IE^[BER    OF    CONGRESS    FROM    THE    NINTH    DISTRKT, 


Allen  D.  Candler,  of  Gainesville,  Hall  county,  member  of 
Congress  from  the  Ninth  Di^rict  of  Georgia,  was  born  in 
Lumpkin  county,  Georgia,  November  4th,  1834.  In  his  boy- 
hood he  attended  the  common  schools  of  tlie  country,  and  sub- 
sequently attended  Mercer  University,  where  he  graduated  in 
1858.  He  read  law,  but  never  practiced,  devoting  himself  to 
teaching  for  a  year  or  two,  until  the  outbreak  of  the  civil  war, 
when  he  enlisted  as  a  private  in  the  Confederate  army.  He 
was  subsequently  elected  a  Lieutenant,  Captain,  Lieutenant 
Colonel,  and  Colonel,  and  was  engaged  in  many  a  bloody  battle 
during  the  long  years  of  that  terrible  strife.  At  the  blood}- 
battle  of  Jonesboro  he  was  severely  wounded  in  the  head, 
losing  an  eye. 

After  the  war  Col.  Candler  resumed  the  profession  of  teach- 
ing, first  in  Monroe  Female  College  and  subsequently  as  Presi- 
dent of  the  Sam  Bailey  Institute,  at  Griffin,  Georgia.  His 
health  breaking  down  in  this  sedentary  employment,  in  1870 
he  gave  up  his  position  and  removed  to  Gainesville.  Seeking 
active  out-door  employment,  he  entered  upon  the  milling  and 
building  and  contracting  business,  and  the  proud  young  city  of 
Gainesville,  the  Queen  City  of  the  Mountains,  owes  much  of  its 
rapid  progress  and  wonderful  development  to  his  busy  brain 
and  activity  and  energy.  During  the  years  he  was  engaged  in 
business  in  Gainesville  he  found  time  to  serve  as  Mayor,  build 
a  street  railroad  system,  and  set  on  foot  many  enterprises  that 
have  contril)uted  to  the  growth  and  prosperity  of  the  city.    The 


86  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

most  important  of  these,  perhaps,  is  the  Gainesville,  Jefferson 
and  Southern  Railroad,  of  which  he  was  elected  President  at  a 
time  when  the  enterprise  seemed  sleeping  the  sleep  that  knows 
no  waking.  There  was  not  a  cross-tie  or  a  rail,  or  a  right  of 
way,  or  a  dollar  in  money,  hut,  undismayed,  he  entered  upon 
the  task  of  building  the  road  with  the  vigor  and  energy  which 
has  ever  characterized  him,  and  in  two  years  had  the  line  built, 
equipped  and  in  operation. 

In  1872  his  fellow-citizens  elected  him  to  represent  them  in 
the  lower  House  of  the  General  Assembly,  which  position  he 
held  until  1877.  In  that  year  he  framed  and  introduced  the 
bill  calling  a  constitutional  convention  for  Georgia,  and  cham- 
pioned it  to  its  passage,  against  heavy  odds.  At  the  first  elec- 
tion under  the  new  constitution  he  was  chosen  a  State  Senator, 
and  served  two  years  and  retired  without  asking  a  re-election. 

In  1881  Col.  Candler  was  unanimously  nominated  for  Con- 
gress without  opposition  by  the  Democi-atic  party  of  the  Ninth 
District.  The  outlook  was  most  discouraging.  The  party  in 
the  district  had  been  rent  asunder,  and  in  two  previous  cam- 
paigns Hon.  Emory  Speer  had  run  as  an  Independent,  and  de- 
feated, first,  Hon.  Joel  A.  Billups,  of  Morgan,  a  most  accom- 
plished gentleman,  and  in  the  second  Hon.  Hiram  P.  Bell,  a 
former  Eepresentative  in  Congress  and  one  of  the  ablest  and 
most  popular  men  in  the  district,  by  a  majority  of  nearly  5,000. 
Young,  active,  eloquent,  aggressive,  flushed  with  two  victories, 
■feeling  secure  in  his  position,  he  waited  for  the  Democratic 
nominee  like  Goliah  waited  for  David  between  Shochoh  and 
Azekah, 

In  such  a  crisis  the  party  made  Col.  Candler  its  nominee. 
Without  hesitation  he  accepted  the  party  standard,  and  went 
into  the  conflict.  It  was  one  of  the  most  memorable  that  has 
ever  occurred  in  the  State.  The  nominee  forced  the  fighting 
from  the  start,  and  the  old  Ninth  was  one  grand  bonfire  of  en- 
thusiasm from  the  heights  of  Rabun  to  the  valleys  of  Morgan, 
The  Independent  champion  was  thrown  on  the  defensive  early 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  87 

in  the  campaign,  and  Candler  gained  strength  every  day. 
When  the  end  came  he  reversed  Mr.  Speer's  majority,  and  was 
elected  to  the  Forty-eighth  Congress  by  a  majority  of  over  2,600, 
thus  redeeming  the  district  and  restoring  it  to  the  Democracy. 
He  was  re-elected  to  the  Forty-ninth  Congress,  and  has  been 
again  re-elected  to  the  Fiftieth,  without  opposition.  His  present 
term  will  expire  March  3,  1889. 


REPRESENTA  TIVE  GEOR  GIANS. 


HON.  J.  S.  DAVIDSON, 


PRESIDENT    OF    THE    SENATE. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  89 


HON.  JOHN  S.  DAVIDSON, 

PRESIDENT    OF    THE    SENATE    OF    GEORGIA. 


Our  engi-aver  lias  succeeded  in  giving  us  a  fine  portrait  of  the 
subject  of  this  sketch,  admittedly  one  of  the  finest  presiding 
officers  who  wields  the  gavel  of  any  deliberative  body,  as  well 
as  one  of  the  most  cultured  and  genial  gentlemen  native  to  a 
State  which  boasts  a  citizenry  unsurpassed  anywhere  in  the 
chivalry  and  manliness  of  her  sons. 

John  S.  Davidson  is  a  typical  Georgian.  He  was  born  in 
Augusta,  Georgia,  his  present  home,  and,  contravening  the 
maxim  that  "a  prophet  is  not  without  honor,  save  in  his  own 
country,"  has  never  lived  anj^where  else,  but  has  grown  up  and 
made  his  way  in  the  world  among  the  people  in  the  city  of  his 
birth,  who  now  delight  to  honor  him,  and  appreciate  and  re- 
ward his  efforts  in  their  behalf.  His  mother  was  a  Treat — a 
lineal  descendant  of  Robert  Treat,  the  "Charter  Oak  Gov- 
ernor" of  Connecticut,  who  was  Lieutenant  Governor  and  Gov- 
ernor of  that  State  for  twenty-five  years,  and  of  Robert  Treat 
Paine,  one  of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
and  long  Attorney  General  of  Massachusetts.  His  father,  Wil- 
liam D.  Davidson,  was  descended  from  Gen.  William  David- 
son, of  North   Carolina. 

Mr.  Davidson's  education  was  obtained  at  Augusta  schools 
and  at  the  Aubury  Institute,  in  Twiggs  county.  He  left  school 
in  the  latter  part  of  1S64,  and  some  years  after  th(^  war  was  as- 
sociated with  James  R.  Randall  in  the  editorial  department  of 
the  Augusta  Constitutionalist.  After  this  he  studied  law,  and  is 
at  present  engaged  in  its  practice  with  gratifying  success. 


90 


REPRESENTA  TIVE  GEOR GIANS. 


Several  years  since  Mr.  Davidson  was  elected  from  the  floor 
Grand  Master  of  the  Masons  of  Georgia,  one  of  the  largest  and 
most  intelligent  deliberative  bodies  in  the  State.  Such  an  elec- 
tion, never  having  held  any  other  office  in  the  Grand  Lodge, 
has  only  occurred  once  before  (United  States  Senator  W.  C. 
Dawson  being  elected  in  the  same  way)  in  the  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years  of  the  existence  of  the  Grand  Lodge. 

In  1884  Mr.  Davidson  was  unanimously  elected  to  the  Senate 
and  served  as  chairman  of  the  Finance  Committee  of  that 
body.  His  committee  never  lost  a  report  during  the  session, 
something  which  has  rarely  if  ever  occurred  before  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  Georgia  Legislature.  In  1886  he  was  re-elected  to 
the  Senate  by  a  large  majority,  and  unanimously  chosen  Presi- 
dent of  the  body.  He  is  President  of  the  Board  of  Education 
of  Richmond  county,  and  City  Attorney  of  the  city  of  Augusta. 
He  is  unmarried. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  91 


HON.  TALBOT  CARLETON  BELT, 

REPRESENTATIVE  FROM  THE  COUNTY  OF  BURKE. 


Talbot  Carleton  Belt,  of  Beltwood,  Burke  county,  was 
born  at  Wrightsboro,  Columbia  county,  Georgia,  June  4, 
1849,  and  is  the  eldest  son  of  Dr.  Lloyd  Carleton  Belt  and 
Elizabeth  Talbot  Belt.  On  his  father's  side  he  is  descended 
from  Dr.  Lloyd  Belt,  of  Maryland,  and  is  a  great-grandson  of 
John  Berrien,  of  New  Jersey,  who  was  on  George  Washing- 
ton's staff.  He  is  a  great-nephew  of  Hon,  John  McPherson 
Berrien,  one  of  the  greatest  of  Georgia's  great. 

On  his  mother's  side  he  is  purely  Southern.  His  mother 
traces  her  lineage  back  through  a  long  line  of  noble  names  to 
the  colonial  families  of  Virginia,  William  Jones,  of  the  cele- 
brated '' Hanover  Militia,"  the  first  troops  raised  in  1776,  being 
her  great  grand-father.  She  is  a  grand-daughter  of  Gov.  John 
Talbot,  of  Virginia.  He  and  John  Lynch,  of  ''Lj'nch  Law  " 
fame,  signed,  side  by  side,  the  first  Declaration  of  Independence, 
in  June,  1774,  he  being  then  a  member  of  the  House  of  Bur- 
gesses of  Virginia.  Previous  to  this  King  George  III.  had 
given  to  him  a  grant  of  land  in  Wilkes  county,  Georgia,  to 
which  he  removed  in  1785,  subsequently  representing  his  county 
in  the  Legislature  at  Savannah  for  several  years.  He  died  in 
1795,  leaving  two  sons,  Mathew  and  Thomas,  whose  services  to 
the  State  are  part  of  her  history. 

From  such  a  line  is  the  subject  of  our  sketch  descended.  His 
father.  Dr.  Lloyd  Carleton  Belt,  was  among  the  first  to  offer 
his  services  to  his  country  during  the  late  war,  and  with  a  com- 
panj'  of  one  hundred  men,  uniformed  by  his  wife,  took  commis- 


92  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

siou  in  tlie  Confederate  service  March  27,  1861,  in  the  Ninth 
Georgia  Regiment  as  its  color  company.  He  went  with  his 
relatives,  Bartow  and  Bee,  to  Virginia  in  May  following.  He 
was  wounded  at  Dam  No.  1,  Yorktown,  April,  1862,  and  died 
in  Richmond  on  May  14  following. 

Talbot  Carleton  Belt,  the  eldest  son  of  Dr.  Belt,  educated 
at  Sparta  and  Athens,  left  school,  with  his  mother's  consent, 
at  sixteen,  and  volunteered  in  the  service.  He  fought  in  the 
trenches  around  Atlanta  as  a  private,  was  offered  a  place  on 
Gen.  Smith's  staff,  and  was  finally  promoted  to  the  position  of 
Sergeant  in  the  ordnance  department.  He  was  promoted  to  a 
Lieutenancy  and  placed  on  the  staff  of  Gen.  Reuben  W.  Cars- 
well,  worked  in  the  lead  of  Sherman's  march  to  the  sea,  and 
when  Savannah  was  evacuated  was  among  the  last  to  cross  the 
pontoon  bridge,  and  surrendered  with  the  remnants  of  Johns- 
ton's shattered  army. 

On  his  return  home  Mr.  Belt,  barely  yet  having  reached  his 
majority,  entered  upon  agricultural  pursuits,  was  married  to 
Miss  Ella  Inman,  and  at  Beltwood  has  a  lovely  home,  where 
the  visitor  is  always  made  welcome.  He  is  a  member  of  the 
Board  of  Commissioners  of  Roads  and  Revenues  of  his  county. 
He  has  held  many  positions  of  trust,  and  was  elected  last  year 
to  represent  his  people  in  the  General  Assembly,  where  he  has 
made  an  industrious,  useful  and  popular  member. 


^•\'-^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.  JUDSON  C.  CLEMENTS, 

MEMBER    OF    CONGRESS    FROM    THE    SEVENTH    DISTRICT. 


Few  men  in  Georgia  are  better  known  than  Judson  C.  Clem- 
ents. A  few  years  ago  the  Seventh  District  of  Georgia  was 
represented  in  the  National  Honse  by  Dr.  William  H.  Felton, 
who  had  succeeded,  as  an  Independent  candidate,  in  defeating 
the  Democratic  nominees,  among  the  best  and  strongest  men 
in  the  district,  in  three  campaigns.  He  had  become  to  be  re- 
garded as  ahnost  invincilile,  and  was  reported  to  be  the  pro- 
prietor of  a  certain  "hallelujah  lick"  that  struck  terror  to  the 
hearts  of  his  opponents,  and  swept  everything  before  it.  In 
such  a  crisis,  when  the  Democratic  nomination  almost  went 
begging,  Mr.  Clements  accepted  it,  defeated  Mr.  Felton  and 
restored  the  district  to  the  Democracy. 

JuDsoN  C.  Clements  was  born  in  Walker  county,  Georgia, 
February  12,  1846.  He  received  a  common  school  education 
and  went  to  the  Cumberland  University  Law  School  at  Lebanon, 
Tennessee.  Upon  his  return  and  admission  to  the  bar,  in  1869, 
he  entered  upon  the  practice  of  his  profession  at  LaFayette, 
Walker  county,  where  he  yet  lives,  and  has  built  up  a  large  and 
lucrative  practice  in  all  that  section  of  the  State. 

In  1872  Mr.  Clements  first  entered  into  politics  and  was 
elected  a  member  of  the  Lower  House  of  the  General  As8embl3\ 
His  record  here  was  so  satisfactory  that  he  was  returned  in 
1874.  In  1877  he  was  elected  to  the  Senate  for  the  term  of 
two  years,  and  it  was  while  serving  in  this  body  that  he  attracted 
the  attention  which  gave  him  the  nomination  for  Congress  in 
1880.     The  campaign  alluded  to  above  followed,  and  attracted 


H  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

great  interest  in  all  parts  of  the  State.  At  its  close  he  was  tri- 
umphantly elected — as  stated — to  the  Forty-seventh  Congi-ess. 
In  the  National  House  Mr.  Clements  made  a  most  creditable 
record,  and  was  returned  to  the  Forty-eighth  and  Forty-ninth 
Congresses,  and  has  been  re-elected  to  the  Fiftieth  Congress. 
During  the  last  Congressional  session  Mr.  Clements  was  happily 
married  to  Miss  Dulaney,  of  Louisville,  Ky.,  has  a  happy  home, 
and  is  in  all  respects  a  "Representatative  Georgian." 


i 


I 


96 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.  CHARLES  Z.  McCORD, 

REPRESENTATIVE    FROM    THE    COUNTY    OF    RICHMOND. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  97 


I 


HON.  CHARLES   Z.  McCORD, 

REPRESENTATIVE    FROM    THE    COUNTY    OF    RICHMOND. 


Ill  tlie  past  history  of  the  State  Richmond  county  has  always 
contributed  an  able  delegation  to  the  councils  of  the  common- 
wealth. The  culture,  refinement  and  abilit}'  of  its  citizenry 
has  always  afforded  her  people  ample  material  from  which  to 
select  a  representation  that  not  onl}^  reflects  credit  upon  her, 
but  proves  of  benefit  to  the  people  of  the  whole  State.  Her 
present  representatives  amply  maintain  the  prestige  of  the 
past. 

Of  the  three  gentlemen  who  at  present  illustrate  the  old 
county  in  the  lower  House,  the  subject  of  this  sketch  is,  if  we 
mistake  not,  the  youngest.  He  is  native,  "to  the  manor  born," 
of  the  county  which  lionors  herself  and  him  by  sending  him  to 
represent  her.  His  father,  Hon.  Z.  McCord,  President  of  the 
National  Bank  of  Augusta,  and  one  of  the  foremost  merchants 
of  the  city,  is  a  native  of  Lincoln  county,  but  has  been  for 
manj^  years  identified  with  Augusta  and  all  that  has  tended  to 
her  up])uilding.  His  palatial  home,  in  the  most  charming  sec- 
tion of  this  most  beautiful  city,  is  a  veritable  paradise  of  gener- 
ous hospitality,  filled  with  all  that  can  minister  to  the  most 
cultivated  taste,  and  redolent  with  that  subtle  air  of  refinement 
and  chivahy  that  is  found  nowhere  in  such  perfection  as  in  the 
Southern  cities  of  the  olden  time.  The  presiding  {)riestess  of 
this  ''Castle  Bountiful"  is  a  fit  helpmeet  to  its  lord.  She  was 
before  marriage  Miss  Harriet  A.  Walton,  of  the  grand  old 
county  of  AVilkes,  and  belonged  to  one  of  its  earliest  and  most 
prominent  families. 


98  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

In  such  a  home,  and  of  such  a  parentage,  comes  the  subject 
of  this  sketch.  Few  men  have  so  much  for  which  to  be  envied. 
In  the  pure  atmosphere  and  amid  the  soft,  refining  influences 
of  the  home  we  have  described  he  has  been  born  and  reared, 
and,  being  yet  unmarried,  finds  in  the  sacred  precincts  of  the 
parental  roof-tree  all  that  can  be  desired.  He  is  a  worthy  scion 
of  the  House.  Educated  at  the  University  of  Georgia,  where 
he  graduated  with  high  honors,  he  for  a  short  time  engaged  in 
mercantile  pursuits  with  his  father,  but,  his  mind  tending  in 
the  direction  of  the  law,  he  studied  that  science  at  Columbia 
University,  graduated  with  honor,  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and 
entered  at  once  upon  a  lucrative  practice,  which  grows  with  the 
passing  years. 

Mr.  McCoRD  is  a  consistent  member  of  the  Baptist  Church, 
and  his  popularity  in  this  denomination,  coupled  with  his  fit- 
ness for  the  place,  made  him  a  trustee  of  Mercer  University. 
His  zeal  in  educational  matters  attracting  public  attention,  re- 
sulted in  placing  him  on  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  State 
University,  and  he  is  the  youngest  member  of  that  body. 

In  18S6  Mr.  McCord  was  elected  to  the  House  of  Eepresenta- 
tives,  leading  his  ticket,  after  a  heated  contest.  In  the  House 
he  has  left  the  impress  of  his  character,  and  made  many  warm 
friends.  With  a  peculiarly  analytical  mind,  forceful  in  his 
oratorical  efforts,  rising  oft  to  the  truly  eloquent,  he  has  few 
equals  and  no  superiors  on  the  floor  of  the  House  in  debate. 
While  earnestly  devoted  to  the  interests  of  his  immediate  con- 
stitutents,  he  has  as  well  that  broader  conception  which  enables 
him  to  look  away  from  localities  to  the  interests  of  the  whole 
people.  His  labors  in  the  various  directions  in  which  his  com- 
mittee positions  have  placed  him  have  been  zealous  and  untir- 
ing, and  these  combine  with  the  excellent  record  he  has  made 
on  the  floor  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a  political  career  the  suc- 
cess and  usefulness  of  which  will  only  be  measured  by  the  op- 
portunities which  his  life  may  in  the  future  present. 


ct  e' 


100 


REPRE8ENTA  TIVE  GEOR  GIANS. 


HON.  ALLEN  FORT, 

JUDGE    SUPERIOR    COURTS,   SOUTHWESTERxN    CIRCUIT. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  101 


HON.  ALLEN  FORT, 

JUDGE    SUPERIOR    COURTS,  SOUTHWESTERN    CIRCUIT. 


Allen  Fort,  of  Americus,  Ga.,  Judge  of  the  Superior  Courts 
of  the  Southwestern  Circuit,  is  the  son  of  James  Akthur  Fort, 
his  mother's  maiden  name  having  been  Mary  A.  Beacher.  His 
grandfather,  Arthur  Fort,  was  a  brother  of  Hon.  Tomlinson 
Fort  and  Judge  Moses  Fort,  both  prominent  and  well-known 
Georgians.  His  great-granfather,  also  named  Arthur  Fort, 
was  a  member  of  the  first  Executive  Council  in  Georgia  in  1777, 
and  signer  of  the  Constitution  of  1798,  and  was  for  many  years 
afterwards  a  State  Senator.  Judge  Fort  is  descended  (it  will 
be  seen)  from  a  long  line  of  prominent  Georgians. 

Allen  Fort  was  born  near  Lumpkin,  Stewart  county,  Geor- 
gia, July  14,  1849.  His  education  was  begun  in  the  common 
schools  of  the  country,  but  in  1866  he  went  to  the  University  of 
Georgia  and  graduated  in  1867,  sharing  the  first  honor  of  his 
class  with  Samuel  Spencer,  then  of  Columbus,  but  now  Super- 
intendent of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  Company.  In 
1869  the  University  conferred  on  Mr.  Fort  the  degree  of  A.  M. 

After  leaving  college  Mr.  Fort  settled  in  Americus  and  read 
law  in  the  office  of  Judge  Willis  A.  Hawkins,  and  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  bar  and  commenced  practice  in  May,  1868.  In 
1872  he  was  elected  to  the  Lower  House  of  the  General  Assem- 
bly, and  during  his  service  passed  the  bill  which  gave  Americus 
her  admirable  system  of  public  schools.  At  the  end  of  his  term 
he  declined,  on  account  of  ill-health,  to  be  a  candidate  for  re- 
election. In  1876  he  was  sent  as  a  delegate  from  Georgia 
to  the  National  Democratic  Convention,  which  met  at  St.  Louis 


102  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

and  nominated  Tilden  and  Hendricks,  and  was  Georgia's  rep- 
resentative on  the  committee  to  notify  them  of  their  nomina- 
tion. He  performed  this  duty,  meeting  Mr.  Tilden  at  Gram- 
mercy  Park,  New  Yorkj  and  Mr.  Hendricks  at  Saratoga. 

Before  reaching  home  from  this  mission  his  friends  had  again 
put  him  forward  for  the  Democratic  nomination  to  the  Legisla- 
ture. He  reached  home  but  a  few  days  before  the  meeting  of  the 
Convention,  and  without  time  for  a  canvass,  received  the  nomi- 
nation and  was  elected,  and  served  in  the  Legislature,  which 
passed  and  submitted  to  the  people  the  ordinance  calling  the 
Constitutional  Convention  of  1877.  Under  the  new  Constitution, 
framed  by  that  Convention,  he  was  again  elected  to  the  Legis- 
lature and  served  1878-79-80.  In  the  Legislature  of  1878-9  he 
was  Chairman  pro  tern,  of  the  Committees  on  Railroads  and 
Judiciary  and  Chairman  of  the  Special  Committee  on  the  Macon 
and  Brunswick  Railroad — framing,  introducing  and  pressing  to 
passage  the  bill  providing  for  its  sale.  He  was  also  the  author 
of  two  supplemental  bills  authorizing  payment  for  the  road  to 
be  made  in  registered  United  States  bonds,  provided  State 
bonds  could  not  be  secured,  thus  saving  to  the  State  a  large 
amount  of  money. 

In  this  Legislature,  also,  came  up  the  famous  impeachment 
case  of  The  People  of  Georgia  vs.  John  W.  Renfroe,  State 
Treasurer.  Mr.  Fort  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Board  of 
Managers  on  the  part  of  the  House,  and  made  the  opening  argu- 
ment for  the  People  before  the  High  Court  of  Impeachment. 
In  this  Legislature  he  was,  also,  very  active  in  support  of  the 
measure  of  State  regulation  of  railroads,  and  was  the  joint 
author  with  Mr.  W.  R.  Rankin,  of  Gordon  county,  of  the  bill 
which  passed  the  House,  known  as  ''the  Fort-Rankin  bill,"  and 
which,  with  Senate  amendments,  is  to  to-day  the  Railroad 
Commission  law  of  Georgia.  In  this  work  Mr.  Fort  was  active, 
tireless  and  energetic,  and  won  many  encomiums  upon  the 
abilty  with  which  he  managed  to  overcome  the  organized  and 
powerful  opposition  which  fought  the  measure  at  every  step. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  J 03 

Gen.  Toombs — the  great  tribune  of  the  people — admh-iug  the 
strength  and  completeness  of  the  law,  which  he  had  numerous 
occasions  to  test  in  the  courts,  having  himself  championed  in  the 
Constitutional  Convention  the  ordinance  authorizing  such 
legislation,  wrote  Mr.  Fokt  an  autograph  letter,  in  which  he 
said:  ''Our  work  will  not  die  yet,  if  ever.  The  country  is 
greatly  indebted,  to  yourself  especially,  and  other  members  of 
the  House,  for  the  zeal,  energj'^  and  abilit}'  which  you  displayed 
in  this  great  battle  for  the  rights  of  the  people  against  the  public 
plunderers."  Now  that  this  "noblest  Roman  of  them  all"  has 
passed  to  his  reward,  Mr.  Fort  cherishes  this  commendation  as 
a  precious  memento  of  one  of  the  grandest  men  Georgia  ever 
produced. 

Retiring  from  the  Legislature  at  the  end  of  his  term  Mr. 
Fort  resumed  the  practice  of  his  profession,  and  in  November, 
1S82,  was  elected  Judge  of  the  Superior  Courts  of  the  South- 
westei-n  Judicial  Circuit,  to  fill  an  unexpired  term  caused  by  the 
resignation  of  Hon.  Charles  F.  Crisp.  In  1884  he  was  re-elected 
— without  opposition — for  a  term  of  four  years.  On  the  bench 
he  has  made  an  upright,  fearless  and  able  officer. 

With  all  his  successes,  perhaps  the  happiest  event  of  ]\Ir. 
Fort's  life  was  his  marriage,  December  13,  1876,  to  Miss  Floyd 
HoLLis,  of  Buena  Alsta,  Marion  county,  a  young  lady  of  regal 
beauty,  queenly  presence,  brilliant  intellect,  and  all  the  qualities 
of  head  and  heart  to  render  his  home  a  paradise  and  furnish  a 
never-ending  inspiration  for  his  noblest  efforts. 
8 


10 J,  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.  W.  G.  BRANTLEY, 

SENATOR    FROM    THE    THIRD    SENATORIAL    DISTRICT, 


W.  G.  Brantley  was  born  at  Blackshear,  Pierce  countj^,  Geor- 
gia, September  18,  1860,  and  is  therefore  at  this  writing  only 
twenty-seven  years  of  age.  Few  men  have  achieved  so  envi- 
able a  success,  or  laid  the  foundation  for  a  successful  business, 
professional  and  political  career,  at  so  early  an  age. 

Mr.  Brantley  was  educated  in  the  common  schools  of  his  na- 
tive town  in  the  elementai-y  branches,  until  qualified  to  enter 
the  University  of  Georgia,  where  he  received  the  finishing 
touches  of  that  education  which  stands  him  in  such  good  stead 
now. 

Upon  leaving  the  University,  Mr.  Brantley  entered  upon  the 
practice  of  law  in  1881  and  was  at  once  drawn  into  local  poli- 
tics. He  was  elected  Mayor  in  1882,  and  at  the  end  of  his  term 
of  service  was  nominated  and  elected  to  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives in  1884.  In  1886  he  was  nominated  for  the  Senate  from 
the  Third  Senatorial  District,  composed  of  the  counties  of 
Pierce,  Appling  and  AVayne,  to  which  position  he  was  elected 
and  now  holds.  His  course  in  both  the  House  and  Senate  has 
been  such  as  to  stamp  him  a  fair  type  of  the  active,  brainy,  en- 
ergetic young  Georgian  now  coming  so  largely  to  the  front  in 
public  affairs.  In  the  Senate  he  is  Chairman  of  Committee  on 
Banks,  and  a  member  of  those  on  Judiciary,  Education,  Rail- 
roads and  Lunatic  Asylum. 

Mr.  Brantley  has  been  successful  in  the  practice  of  his  chosen 
profession,  the  law.  He  was  for  three  years  in  partnership  with 
Hon.  John  C.  Nicholls,  M.  C,  but  the  copartnership  was  dis- 
solved recently  by  mutual  consent.  Mr.  Brantley  is  pers(mally 
a  social,  genial  gentleman,  has  a  charming  wife  and  a  happy 
home,  and  his  future  is  one  of  much  promise. 


106 


BEPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.  WILLIAM  A.  HARRIS, 

SECRETARY  OF  THE  SENATE  OF  GEORGIA. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  107 


HON.  WILLIAM  A.  HARRIS, 

SECRETARY    OF    THE    SENATE    OF    GEORGIA. 


I  Anj^  book  essaying  to  deal  witli  the  public  men  of  Georgia 
which  left  out  the  subject  of  this  sketch  would  be  wofully  in- 
complete. Few,  if  anj'  men  in  Georgia  know  more  j)eople,  or 
are  more  universally  popular  than  he.  Bluff,  hearty  and  gen- 
erous, loyal  to  his  friends  always,  and  fighting  his  enemies  with 
unfaltering  courage  and  audacit}",  be  they  personal  or  political, 
he  has  become  known  throughout  the  State. 

WiLLAiM  A.  Harris,  of  Worth  county,  was  born  in  Milledge- 
ville,  Georgia,  in  1830.  He  is  the  eldest  sou  of  the  late  Hon. 
IvERsoisr  L.  Harris,  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State 
for  many  years,  and  one  of  the  ablest  jurists  who  have  ever 
graced  that  bench.  William  A.  had  good  educational  advan- 
tages. He  was  a  pupil  of  the  celebrated  C.  P.  Beeman,  a  teacher 
of  State  wide  reputation  in  those  days.  Entered  old  Oglethorpe 
College  at  the  age  of  thirteen,  afterwards  spent  two  years  under 
Rev.  T.  M.  CooLEY,  LL.  D.,  at  Granville,  Mass.,  and  finally 
finished  under  the  late  Bishop  Stephen  D.  Elliott,  at  Mont- 
pelier  Springs. 

In  1846,  though  a  mere  boy,  Mr.  Harris  left  school  to  enlist 
in  the  United  States  Army  for  service  in  Mexico,  under  Henry 
R.  Jackson,  Colonel  commanding  Georgia  volunteers.  He  was 
in  Qx'^itman's  division  of  General  William  Worth's  brigade, 
and  went  through  that  struggle. 

Returning  from  the  Mexican  war  young  Harris  read  law  in 
the  office  of  his  father,  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  removing 
to  Irwin  county,  commenced   the  practice   of  liis  profession. 


108  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

Soon  thereafter  the  county  of  Worth  was  made  and  the  part 
taken  from  Irwin  inckiding  Mr.  Harris  he  was  elected  to  the 
Legislature  to  represent  the  new  county.  He  was  State  Senator 
for  twenty  years.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  civil  war  he  entered 
the  Confederate  service  as  Captain  and  was  successively  elected 
Major  and  promoted  to  Lieutenant  Colonel. 

After  the  war  Col.  Harris  married  Miss  Gussie  Ford  and 
settled  down  to  the  practice  of  his  profession.  His  fellow-citi- 
zens, however,  would  again  bring  him  into  public  life  and  he 
was  sent  to  the  State  Senate.  Subsequently,  when  his  term  ex- 
pired, he  was  elected  Secretary  of  that  body  and  has  served  in 
that  capacity  for  seven  or  eight  sessions,  being  unanimously 
re-elected  at  every  meeting  of  the  General  Assembly  without 
opposition. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  109 


HON.  CHARLES  F.  CRISP, 

MEMBER    OF    CONGRESS    FIFTH    DISTRICT    OF    GEORGIA. 


Yet  comparatively  a  young  man,  Mr.  Crisp  has  forged  his 
way  so  well  to  the  front  as  to  be  one  of  the  most  prominent,  as 
well  as  promising  of  the  bright,  Ijrainy  young  men  of  whom 
the  commonwealth  hopes  for  so  much  in  the  coming  future. 

Mr.  Crisp  escaped  being  born  in  America  by  his  parents 
making  a  visit  to  England,  where,  at  Sheffield,  on  the  29th  of 
January,  1845,  he  first  saw  the  light.  Upon  their  return  to  this 
country  Mr.  Crisp,  yet  an  infant,  was  brought  to  America,  and 
has  since  been  a  citizen  of  the  Republic. 

Mr.  Crisp  received  a  common  school  education  at  Savannah 
and  Macon,  Georgia.  He  entered  the  Confederate  army  in 
1861,  when  under  seventeen  years  of  age,  and  followed  the  flag 
of  the  Confederacj^  until  it  went  down  in  the  gloom  of  defeat. 
He  was  a  Lieutenant  in  C'ompany  K,  Tenth  Virginia  Infantry, 
and  in  1864  was  made  a  prisoner  of  war  and  immured  in  Fort 
Delaware  until  June,  1865. 

Upon  his  release  from  prison  Mr.  C^risp  returned  to  his  home 
at  Ellaville,  Schley  county,  and  shortly  thereafter  read  law  at 
Americus,  and,  completing  the  course,  was  admitted  to  the  bar 
and  commenced  practice  in  1866  at  Ellaville,  having  but  just 
reached  his  majority. 

In  1872  Mr.  Crisp  was  appointed  by  Gov.  James  M.  Smith 
Solicitor  General  of  the  Southwestern  circuit,  and  in  1873  was 
re-appointed  for  a  term  of  four  years.  In  1877  he  was  ap- 
pointed Judge  of  the  circuit.  The  next  year  he  was  elected  by 
the  General  Assembly,  under  the  new  constitution,  to  the  same 


110  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

office,  and  in  1880  was  re-elected  for  a  term  of  four  years,  re- 
signing in  September,  1882,  to  accept  the  Democratic  nomina- 
tion for  Congress.  He  was  elected,  practically  without  opposi- 
tion, to  the  Forty-eighth  Congress,  re-elected  to  the  Forty -ninth 
and  again  chosen  to  the  Fiftieth. 

Of  his  work  in  the  National  House  the  limits  of  this  article 
will  not  allow  us  to  speak  in  extenso.  He  was  promptly  recog- 
nized on  that  arena  as  a  man  with  pronounced  convictions, 
quick  and  sure  to  grasp  public  questions  and  prompt  to  give 
utterance  to  his  views.  He  has  enjoyed  the  esteem  of  his  fel- 
low members,  has  had  excellent  positions  on  important  com- 
mittees, and  had  much  to  do  with  shaping  legislation.  By 
reason  of  his  position  on  the  Committee  on  Commerce  he  was 
in  charge  of  the  Inter-State  Commerce  bill,  and  carried  that 
measure  through  the  House  and  the  conference  committees, 
and  put  it  on  the  statute  books. 

Personally  Mr.  Crisp  is  a  gentleman  of  fine  presence,  and 
socially  is  genial,  companionable,  and  consequent!}^  very  popu- 
lar, not  only  among  his  immediate  constituency,  but  through- 
out the  State.     His  future  is  bright  with  promise. 


112 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.  J.  M.  TERRELL, 

REPRESENTATIVE    FROiM    THE    COUNTY    OF    MERIWETHER. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  113 


HON.  JOSEPH  M.  TERRELL, 

REPRESENTATIVE    FROM    THE    COUNTY    OF    MERIWETHER. 


Hon.  Joseph  Meriwether  Terrei,l  was  born  in  Greenville, 
Georgia,  June  6,  1861,  and  is  now  serving  his  second  term  as 
Representative  fi-om  Meriwether  count}' . 

Mr.  Terrell  is  descended  from  excellent  parentage  on  both 
sides,  his  father,  the  late  Dr.  J.  E.  G.  Terrell,  being  one  of  the 
most  skillful  and  popular  physicians  in  Western  Georgia,  while 
his  mother  is  the  oldest  daughter  of  Dr.  J.  W.  Anthony,  who 
was  also  a  distinguished  practitioner  of  medicine.  His  grand- 
parents all  belonged  to  leading  families  of  Wilkes  county.  Dr. 
William  Terrell,  formerly  Congressman  from  Georgia,  was  a 
near  relative. 

Mr.  Terrell  was  educated  entirely  in  the  schools  at  Green- 
ville, having  been  for  half  a  dozen  j-ears  under  the  instructions 
of  Hon.  William  T.  Revill,  a  most  successful  teacher.  At 
school  he  was  the  youngest  member  in  his  classes,  always  stand- 
ing at  the  head  of  his  classes,  and  being  frequently  promoted  to 
the  higher  grades  in  advance  of  his  classmates,  so  that  at  the 
age  of  fourteen  he  was  a  fine  mathematician,  an  excellent  Latin 
and  Greek  scholar.  At  this  early  age  his  schoolboy  days  ended, 
he  was  placed  by  his  father  in  charge  of  a  plantation  a  few  miles 
from  town.  Here  he  succeeded  well,  as  he  has  always  done, 
developing  a  remarkable  fondness  for  and  success  in  agricul- 
tural pursuits. 

After  five  years  of  farm  life  at  the  age  of  twenty  Mr.  Ter- 
rell left  the  plantation  and  entered  the  law  ofiice  of  Major 


lU  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

John  W.  Park.  Making  rapid  progress  in  his  legal  studies,  he 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  February,  1882,  before  reaching  his 
majority.  At  the  bar  his  career  has  been  a  brilliant  success. 
Possessing  a  thorough  mastery  of  the  law  controlling  his  cases, 
gifted  with  a  ready  command  of  language,  always  forcible  and 
never  redundant,  going  at  once  into  the  merits  of  his  clients' 
rights,  and  sifting  the  testimony  so  completely  as  to  bring  out 
its  true  meaning,  he  exercises  a  marked  and  controlling  influ- 
ence on  courts  and  juries.  Courteous  and  social  in  the  court- 
room and  in  the  everyday  walks  of  life,  he  is  a  favorite  with 
the  bar  and  the  people. 

In  1884,  when  only  twenty-three  years  of  age,  Mr.  Terrell 
was  nominated  by  a  Democratic  county  convention  on  the  first 
ballot,  by  more  than  a  two-thirds  vote,  as  a  candidate  for  the 
Legislature.  He  was  elected  by  an  overwhelming  majorit}^, 
and,  though  the  youngest  member  of  the  body,  was  appointed 
by  Speaker  Little  a  member  of  the  leading  House  committees, 
viz.:  General,  Judiciary,  Banks  and  Banking,  Local  Bills,  and 
Asylum  for  the  Blind.  At  once  he  took  a  high  stand  as  a  de- 
bater and  legislator,  being  strong,  convincing  and  conciUatory 
in  presenting  his  arguments,  and  broad,  catholic  and  states- 
manlike in  his  ideas. 

Re-elected  in  1886,  Mr.  Terrell  was  appointed  third  on  the 
Judiciary  Committee,  also  a  member  of  committees  on  Banks, 
Penitentiary,  the  special  committee  to  investigate  the  conduct 
of  the  convict  lessees,  and  chairman  of  the  important  Commit- 
tee on  Counties  and  County  Matters.  He  takes  a  leading  part 
in  all  subjects  before  the  House,  and  is  always  heard  with  re- 
spect and  attention.  Often  called  to  preside  over  the  body,  he 
wields  the  gavel  with  rare  grace,  ability  and  dignity. 

For  one  so  young  the  subject  of  this  sketch  enjoys  an  ex- 
tensive acquaintance  with  the  leading  men  of  the  State,  both 
in  and  out  of  public  life.  Gifted,  polished,  affable  and  cultured, 
he  is  steadily  increasing  his  reputation  for  legal  ability'  and 
sound,  conservative  statesmanship,  and  his  friends  predict  that 


REPRESENT  A  Tl  VE  GEOR  GIANS. 


115 


his  State  will  ere  long  demand  his  services  in  broader  and  yet 
more  enlarged  fields  of  usefulness. 

In  early  life  Mr.  Terrell  united  with  the  Baptist  Church  in 
Greenville,  and  has  ever  taken  an  active  interest  in  the  affairs 
of  his  church  and  the  general  advancement  of  Christ's  King- 
dom. In  October,  1886,  immediately  after  his  second  election, 
he  was  most  happilj-  married  to  Miss  Jessie  Lee  Spivey,  a  lovely 
and  accomplished  lady.  Happ}-  in  his  domestic  relations, 
honored  in  public  and  respected  in  private  life,  Hon.  J.  M. 
Terrell  is  one  of  Georgia's  noblest  specimens  of  a  true  man. 


116  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.  HENRY  G.  TURNER, 

MEMBER    OF    CONGRESS    SECOND    DISTRICT. 


The  subject  of  this  sketch  is  everywhere  acknowledged  to  be 
one  of  the  foremost  Representatives  in  the  National  House.  He 
is  a  sound  lawyer,  an  able  parliamentarian,  a  finished  orator 
and  debater,  and  a  cultured  and  modest  gentleman. 

The  latter  quality  makes  this  sketch  far  more  barren  of  facts 
than  the  author  would  wish.  Even  the  official  Congressional 
directory  gives  nothing  bej^ond  the  mere  statement  that  he  was 
born  in  North  Carolina,  March  20,  1839,  and  was  elected  to  the 
Forty-seventh,  Forty-eighth  and  Forty-ninth  Congresses,  and 
has  been  returned  to  the  Fiftieth. 

Previous  to  his  election  to  Congress  Mr.  Turner  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Georgia  House  of  Representatives,  and  was  chair- 
man of  the  Committee  on  Elections,  and  in  this  and  other  im- 
portant positions  rendered  valuable  service  to  the  common- 
wealth. He  was  a  member  of  the  Legislature  that  called  the 
Constitutional  Convention  of  1877,  and  was  a  warm  and  earn- 
est advocate  of  that  important  measure. 

In  the  Forty-eighth  Congress  Mr.  Turner  was  appointed  by 
Speaker  Carlisle  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Elections,  the 
same  position  he  had  held  in  the  Georgia  House.  In  that  Con- 
gress there  came  up  the  celebrated  contested  election  case  of 
HuRD  vs.  RoMEis.  The  argument  of  Mr.  Turner  in  this  case 
was  universally  conceded  by  those  who  heard  it  to  be  one  of  the 
ablest  ever  delivered  on  the  floor  of  the  House. 

Mr.  Turner  has  a  charming  family,  is  exceedingly  domestic 
in  his  tastes,  and  is  entirely  free  from  any  effort  at  displa3^ 
Personally  his  quiet,  undemonstrative  manners  sometimes  cause 
him  to  be  misjudged,  but  his  warmest  friends  are  among  those 
who  have  known  him  longest  and  best. 


I 

J 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  IT, 


HON.  SIGN  WILLIAM  HAWKINS, 

REPRESENTATIVE    FROM    THE    COLNTY    OF    NEWTON. 


We  do  not  know  better  how  to  introduce  this  witty,  erudite 
and  humorous  editor  and  abk^,  energetic  legislator  to  our  read- 
ers than  with  the  following  pen  picture  drawn  by  himself: 
"  Born  in  the  lap  of  luxury,  rocked  in  a  cradle  of  ease  and 
plenty,  turned  loose  upon  the  stormy  sea  of  adversity,  drifting 
into  the  paths  of  dissipation  and  wickedness,  and  then  awaken- 
ing to  the  realities  of  life  and  its  duties,  he  swore  off  from  most 
of  his  vices,  and  is  now  endeavoring  to  lead  an  honest  and  in- 
dustrious life,  so  far  as  the  rascality  of  this  time  and  age  will 
permit." 

Of  course,  though  in  his  own  words,  the  picture  is  overdrawTi, 
so  far  as  his  previous  short-c3miugs  are  concerned,  for  he  is  and 
has  always  been  a  genial  and  popular  gentleman,  fond  of  life 
and  gaiety,  brim  full  of  that  honhomme  that  makes  him  popular 
with  every  one  with  whom  he  is  associated,  and,  better  than  all, 
a  sturdy,  reliable  business  man.  Whether  leading  and  direct- 
ing public  opinion  as  an  editor,  or,  as  the  champion  of  the  inter- 
ests of  his  constituentvS  on  the  floor  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, he  has  shown  himself  capable,  honest,  fearless  and  always 
reliable. 

Mr.  Hawkins  is  the  son  of  Mr.  John  T.  Hawkins,  late  of 
Walton  county,  Georgia.  His  mother  was  Miss  Elizabeth  H. 
Henderson  before  marriage,  and  daughter  of  Jamf^s  Hender- 
son, Esq.,  we  believe  of  the  same  place. 

He  was  born  September  2*J,  1S49,  and  his  boyhood  days  were 
spent,  as  those  of  many  who  adopt  as  a  business  the  art  preser- 


118  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

vative,  in  many  different  localities.  His  educational  advan- 
tages were  such  as  are  usually  acquired  in  the  common  schools 
of  the  country,  supplemented  by  knowledge  obtained  in  a 
printing  office. 

He  settled  permanently  in  Covington,  Ga.,  in  1859,  and  has 
remained  there  ever  since,  being  at  present  the  editor  of  the 
Enterprise,  one  of  the  best  and  most  influential  weeklies  in  the 
State.  As  an  evidence  of  the  estimation  in  which  he  is  held  in 
the  city  of  his  residence,  he  has  served  as  a  member  of  its  Coun- 
cil, and  his  selection  to  represent  his  county  in  the  General  As- 
sembly over  formidable  opposition  attests  the  confidence  his 
people  have  in  his  ability  and  political  integrity.  A  true  Demo- 
crat, he  maintains  the  time-honored  principles  of  his  party 
with  pen  and  voice,  in  a  manner  that  is  felt  and  recognized  by 
his  contemporaries. 

He  was  married  May  5,  1874,  to  Miss  Camilla  P.  Cal- 
loway, daughter  of  Thomas  P.  Calloway,  Esq.,  of  Lexington, 
Ga.  True  as  steel  to  his  convictions  of  duty,  with  clear  percep- 
tions of  right  and  thoroughly  conscientious,  he  is  faithful  to  the 
trusts  reposed  in  him,  and  makes  a  legislator  useful  to  his  State 
and  of  whom  his  constituents  are  justly  proud  and  in  whom 
they  implicitly  rely. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  IJf) 


HON.  JESSE    R.  LUMSDEN, 

REPRESENTATIVE    FROM    THE    COUNTV    OF    WHITE. 


Jesse  R.  Lumsden,  the  present  Representative  in  the  lower 
House  of  the  General  Assembly  from  the  county  of  White,  was 
born  in  that  county,  April  17,  1848.  He  received  such  educa- 
tional training  in  his  boyhood  as  was  afforded  by  the  common 
schools  of  the  country,  and  subsequently  attended  the  Collins- 
wortli  Institute,  at  Hayesville,  North  Carolina. 

Giving  up  his  studies,  young  Lumsden  entered  the  Confeder- 
ate army  in  1864,  at  sixteen  years  of  age,  and  was  engaged  in 
the  battles  around  Atlanta.  He  was  subsequently  discharged 
on  account  of  ill  health,  and  in  the  modesty  of  his  nature  de- 
clares that  he  has  no  war  record.  Those,  however,  who  par- 
ticipated with  him  in  the  arduous  Atlanta  campaign  ai'c  dis- 
posed to  differ  with  him  on  this  subject. 

Mr.  Lumsden  has,  since  the  war  and  his  arrival  at  manhood, 
pursued  the  business  of  agriculture  and  mining.  He  owns  the 
famous  Lumsden  mine,  from  which  some  of  the  largest  finds  in 
the  shape  of  nuggets  ever  taken  out  of  the  Georgia  gold  fields 
liave  been  secured.  Within  the  last  few  years  two  nuggets,  one 
weighing  three  hundred  and  seven  and  the  other  three  hmidred 
and  forty-one  pennyweights,  have  been  found  on  his  place.  In 
addition  to  these  pursuits  Mr.  Lumsden  has  found  time  to  serve 
as  Slieriff  of  his  county,  and  devote  much  time  to  all  enter- 
prises looking  to  the  upbuilding  of  his  county  and  section. 

Mr.  Lumsden  was  elected  to  the  Legislature  in  1886,  and  has 
made  a  i)rompt  and  efficient  member  of  the  House.  He  is  on 
the  committees  on  Mining,  Agriculture,  and  Journals,  and  on 


120  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

all  has  performed  his  duties  in  a  way  to  prove  his  fitness  for 
the  position  to  which  his  people  have  called  him,  and  vindicate 
the  wisdom  of  their  selection. 

'  Mr.  LuMSDEN  was  married  in  1873  to  Miss  L.  N.  AVilliams,  a 
most  charming  and  cultivated  lady  of  a  prominent  and  wealthy 
family,  and  has  four  bright  children  to  bless  his  home.  Per- 
sonally he  is  affable,  pleasant  and  genial,  and  makes  fi'iends  of 
all  with  whom  he  comes  in  contact.  He  has  not  seen  the  last 
of  political  promotion,  nor  will  this  be  his  last  opportunity  to 
render  valuable  service  to  the  people  of  his  section  and  of  the 
State. 


r 


122 


REPRESEK  TA  TIVE  GEOR  GIANS. 


HON.  A.  P.  ADAMS, 

JUDGE    OF    THE    EASTERN    CIRCUIT. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  1^3 


HON.    A.    P.    ADAMS, 

JUDGE    SUPERIOR    COURTS    OF    THE    EASTERN    CIRCUIT. 


Georgia  is  remarkable  for  the  number  of  young  men  who  fill 
positions  of  honor  and  trust  in  the  State  government.  Our 
people  are  prompt  to  recognize  merit  and  ability,  and,  unlike 
some  commonwealths,  it  is  not  necessary  for  a  man  to  grow 
gray  before  he  can  realize  the  rewards  that  are  the  just  meed 
of  those  who  spend  themselves  in  the  service  of  their  fellow- 
citizens. 

Judge  Adams  is  an  illustration  of  the  truth  of  this  statement. 
Though  yet  a  young  man  his  merit  and  qualifications  have  won 
for  him  a  proud  place  among  the  Judicial  officers  of  the  State. 
The  Eastern  circuit,  containing  as  it  does  many  of  the  pro- 
foundest  and  ablest  lawyers  in  the  State,  is  rich  in  material  fit 
to  fill  this  high  and  responsible  position.  That  so  young  a  man 
as  Judge  Adams  should  have  been  twice  elected  to  this  position 
is  a  compliment  of  which  any  man  might  be  justly  proud. 

A.  P.  Adams  was  born  in  Savannah,  Georgia,  February  20, 
1852,  and  has  lived  there  ever  since.  He  had  liberal  educa- 
tional advantages,  and  graduated  at  the  University  of  Georgia 
in  1869.  He  read  law,  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  began 
practice  in  January",  1870.  After  the  adoption  of  the  con.stitu- 
tion  he  was  elected  to  the  lower  House  of  the  General  Assem- 
bly, and  represented  Chatham  county  in  1877,  78  and  '79. 
Upon  the  impeachment  of  W.  L.  Goldsmith,  Comptroller  Gen- 
eral, before  the  General  Assembly,  in  1879,  he  was  elected  one 
of  the  managers  on  the  part  of  the  House  in  that  historic  trial. 


12 Ji.  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

and  made  one  of  the  arguments  for  the  people  before  the  High 
Court  of  Impeachment. 

In  November,  1882,  Mr.  Adams  was  unanimously  elected  b}^ 
the  General  Assembly  Judge  of  the  Eastern  circuit,  to  fill  the 
unexpired  term  of  Judge  W.  B.  Fleming,  and  at  the  end  of 
this  term  was  unanimously  re-elected  for  the  full  term.  He  has 
made  an  exceptionally  strong  and  able  officer,  and  given  uni- 
versal satisfaction  in  the  discharge  of  the  onerous  duties  of  his 
position.     He  is  unmarried. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  125 


HON.  THOMAS   J.  CHAPPELL, 

REPRESENTATIVE    FROM    THE    COUNTY    OF    MUSCOGEE, 


Few  of  the  younger  men  in  the  General  Assembly,  and  there 
are  many  of  rare  gifts  and  much  promise,  have  made  a  more 
useful  and  valuable  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
tlian  Hon.  Thomas  J.  Chappell.  He  is  a  thinker  and  worker, 
rather  than  a  talker,  but  is  not  without  facility  in  the  ex- 
pression of  his  views  upon  questions  with  whicli  he  is  familiar, 
and  he  does  not  obtrude  them  upon  any  others.  He  is  thor- 
oughly familiar  with  the  rules  and  precedents  governing  the 
conduct  of  the  business  of  the  House,  and  possesses  the  happy 
faculty  of  knowing  the  thing  to  be  done  and  how  to  do  it.  The 
])ent  of  his  mind  is  toward  the  practical,  and  in  this  direction 
lies  his  value  as  a  representative. 

Mr.  Chappell  is  a  native  of  Muscogee  county,  which  he  now 
in  part  represents,  his  colleague  being  Hon.  W.  A.  Little,  the 
Speaker  of  tlie  House,  and  is  a  son  of  Hon.  Absalom  H.  Chap- 
pell, a  prominent  and  well-known  citizen  of  Columbus,  liis 
mother,  previous  to  her  marriage,  having  been  a  Lamar.  Mr. 
(  'happell  received  his  education  in  primary  schools  and  at  the 
l^niversity  of  Georgia,  shortly  after  leaving  which  he  entered 
upon  the  practice  of  law  in  Columbus,  which  he  continues  to 
follow  with  success.  In  local  politics  Mr.  (Jhappell  has  been 
more  or  less  active,  but  sought  no  political  preferment  for  him- 
self. 

In  1884  he  was  first  elected  to  the  House  of  Representatives, 
and  served  through  the  two"'sessions  of  that  body.  He  was 
chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Enrollment,  a  most  onerous  and 


126  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

responsible  position,  and  discliarged  its  duties  with  marked  in- 
dustry and  fidelity.  In  1886  he  was  returned,  and  in  the 
present  House  is  chairman  of  the  important  Committee  on 
Railroads,  as  well  as  a  member  of  several  others.  In  the  dis- 
charge of  the  duties  devolving  upon  him  on  all  these  he  is 
careful,  painstaking  and  untiring,  and  is  rendering  his  con- 
stitutents  and  the  State  at  large  valuable  service. 

Mr.  Chappell  is  an  exceedingly  modest  gentleman.  A 
sample  of  it  is  found  in  his  reply  to  a  request  for  his  picture  to 
accompany  this  sketch.  He  said:  ''  I  have  no  likeness  of  my- 
self, and  those  I  have  had  in  the  past  are  so  severely  just  that 
they  would  add  nothing  to  the  pictorial  feature  of  your  work." 
He  is  social  and  genial  in  his  personal  intercovirse  with  his 
friends,  courteous  and  even-tempered  even  in  the  heat  of  de- 
bate, generous  to  a  fault,  and,  of  course,  popular  with  all  who 
know  him.  Although  never  forward  in  pressing  his  claims,  his 
people  know  his  worth  and  appreciate  his  ability,  and  the 
future  has  higher  honors  yet  in  store  for  him. 


128 


REPRESENT  A  TIVE  GEOR  GIANS. 


\^^-l^cy^O<:/ 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  129 


HON.  HENRY  H.  CABANISS, 

ASSISTANT    SECRETARY    OF    THE    SENATE. 


Perhaps  no  man  in  Georgia  of  his  age  has  a  wider  circle  of 
acquaintances  in  the  State  or  more  warm  friends  than  the  sub- 
ject of  this  sketch.  Genial  and  social  in  liis  nature,  true  in  his 
friendships,  companionable  and  pleasant  always  in  his  inter- 
course with  those  among  whom  he  may  be  thrown  b}^  official 
duties  or  business  intercourse,  he  is  universall}^  and  deservedly 
popular  among  all  classes  of  his  fellow-citizens. 

Mr.  Cabaniss  is  the  son  of  Hon.  E.  G.  Cabaniss,  a  prominent 
citizen  of  Middle  Georgia.  He  was  for  many  years  Judge  of 
the  Superior  Courts  of  his  circuit,  and  was  elected,  after  the 
war,  a  member  of  Congress,  but  was  not  allowed  to  take  his 
seat,  on  account  of  the  Reconstruction  acts.  His  wife,  the 
mother  of  the  subject  of  our  sketch,  was,  before  marriage  to . 
Judge  Cabaniss,  Miss  Sarah  Chipman,  of  Elbert  county. 

H.  H.  Cabaniss  was  educated  at  the  University  of  Georgia, 
at  Athens,  graduating  in  the  noted  class  of  1869,  with  Judge 
Emory  Speer,  B.  H.  Hill,  Jr.,  Hon.  Howard  Van  Epps,  and 
many  other  distinguished  young  Georgians,  who  have  since 
made  name  and  fame  in  the  history  of  the  State.  Mr.  Cabaniss 
defrayed  the  expenses  of  his  education  by  his  own  personal 
efforts,  and  in  the  same  way  has  worked  out  his  own  career, 
and  achieved  a  success  in  life  as  enviable  as  it  is  creditable  to 
the  energy  and  perseverance  of  the  man. 

He  was  the  editor  and  proprietor  of  the  Monroe  Advertiser, 
one  of  the  ablest  weekly  papers  in  Georgia,  from  1875  to  1882, 
when  he  sold  that  enterprise  to  take  a  position  in  the  Franklin 


130 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


Printing  House,  of  Atlanta,  with  the  Christian  Index.  He  re- 
tained this  place  until  a  few  months  since,  when,  in  connection 
with  other  gentlemen,  he  purchased  the  Atlanta  Journal,  of 
which  he  is  the  Business  Manager. 

In  1879  he  was  chosen  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Senate,  and 
has  held  that  position  continuously  up  to  the  present,  making 
a  popular,  efficient  and  painstaking  officer.  In  1870  he  was 
married  to  Miss  Sallie  Royston,  has  three  children— two  girls 
and  one  boy — and  his  home  is  the  abode  of  modest  luxury. 
He  is  a  consistent  member  of  the  Baptist  Church,  a  synonj-m 
of  strict  integrity  in  his  dealings,  and  has  before  him  as  promis- 
ing a  future  as  any  man  of  his  age  in  the  State. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  131 


HON.  MARTIN  LUTHER  MAIJNEY, 

REPRESENTATIVE  FROM  THE  COUNTY  OF  UNION. 


^ 


Martin  Luther  Mauney  was  born  in  Cherokee  county,  North 
Carolina,  December  4,  1856.  He  left  the  Old  North  State  in 
his  boyhood,  and  settled  in  Union  county,  where  he  has  since 
resided.  He  received  the  rudiments  of  an  education  in  his 
native  county,  but  after  he  came  to  Georgia  he  attended  the 
North  Georgia  Agricultural  College  at  Dahlonega,  and  there 
prepared  himself  for  teaching,  which  profession  he  followed  for 
some  time  with  pronounced  success. 

In  1881,  Mr.  Mauney  was  chosen  by  his  fellow-citizens  Clerk 
of  the  Superior  Court,  and  served  in  that  office  for  two  years, 
making  an  excellent  record.  In  188(5,  he  was  selected  b}'  the 
Democratic  party  as  their  standard  bearer  in  the  Legislative 
campaign  against  a  strong  Republican  opponent,  and  was 
elected  bj*  a  handsome  majority-.  He  has  made  an  efficient 
and  useful  member  of  the  House,  discharging  with  promptitude 
and  fidelity  all  the  duties  of  his  position. 

Mr.  Mauney  is  the  son  of  S.  Mauney,  and  his  mother  before 
marriage  was  Miss  Hill,  a  daughter  of  F.  W.  Hill,  Esq.,  and 
his  parents  are  yet  living  in  Marion  county  beloved  and 
respected  hy  their  neighbors.  Both  are  members  of  the  Baptist 
church. 

The  subject  of  our  sketch  was  married  January  26,  1882,  to 
Miss  Ella  H.  McCombs,  of  Cherokee  county,  North  Carolina. 
They  have  two  daughters  and  one  son.  Mr.  Mauney  is  domes- 
tic in  his  tastes,  and  is  possessed  of  a  cheerful  nature,  and 
many  social  traits  which  make  him  quite  popular  among  his 
friends. 


132  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.  JOHN  W.  MADDOX, 

JUDGE    SUPERIOR    COURTS    ROME    CIRCUIT. 


John  W.  Maddox,  the  present  Judge  of  the  Superior  Courts 
of  the  Rome  Circuit,  was  born  in  Chattooga  county,  Georgia, 
June  3,  1848.  He  is  the  son  of  Dr.  G.  B.  T.  Maddox,  and  his 
mother  before  marriage  was  Miss  Sarah  A.  Dixon,  of  DeKalb 
county. 

Before  reaching  manhood,  at  the  outbreak  of  the  civil  war 
the  subject  of  this  sketch  volunteered  in  the  Sixth  Georgia 
Regiment  and  served  throughout  the  war.  His  father's  prop- 
erty all  swept  away  by  the  war,  and  he  dying  soon  after,  the 
care  of  three  younger  Ijrothers  and  a  sister  devolved  upon 
young  Maddox.  Manfully  and  uncomplainingly  he  entered 
upon  the  task.  Devoting  himself  to  agricultural  pursuits  for  a 
time  he  eventually  entered  upon  the  study  of  law,  and  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  and  began  practice. 

In  1878  Mr.  Maddox  was  Mayor  of  Summerville  and  declined 
a  re-election  at  the  end  of  his  term,  refusing  also  a  candidacy 
for  the  Legislature  which  his  friends  urged  upon  him.  He 
served  in  1879-80  as  a  Commissioner  of  Roads  and  Revenues 
of  his  county.  In  1880  he  was  elected  to  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, having  consented  to  run  at  the  urgent  request  of 
his  friends.  His  record  was  so  satisfactory  that  at  the  end  of 
his  term  he  was  re-elected.  In  1884  he  was  nominated  and 
elected  to  the  Senate  from  the  Forty-second  District. 

During  his  legislative  career  Mr.  Maddox  was  an  energetic 
and  untiring  worker,  and  distinguished  himself  as  an  exception- 
ally strong  debater,  deep  thinker,  and  fearless  champion  of  that 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  133 


which  commended  itself  to  his  judgmeut.  In  1886  he  was, 
after  a  spirited  contest,  elected  to  his  present  position  over  one 
of  the  ablest  and  most  popular  judges  in  the  State,  and  is 
making  a  fine  record  as  a  Judicial  officer. 

Judge  Maddox  was  married  August  15,  1872,  to  Miss  Bettie 
Edmondsox,  and  has  growing  up  around  him  sons  and  daugh- 
ters to  bless  and  brighten  the  happ}'  home  in  which  by  reason 
of  his  strong  domestic  tastes  Judge  Maddox  takes  great  delight. 
He  is  a  sample  of  the  rising  self-made  young  men  of  Georgia, 
and  his  success  simply  shows  what  can  be  accomplished  in  the 
face  of  disadvantageous  circumstances  by  brains,  energy,  and 
tireless  industr3^ 


m  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


4 


HON.  DANIEL  N.  SMITH  * 

SENATOR    FROM    THE    TWENTY-FIRST    DISTRICT. 


Daniel  N.  Smith,  son  of  D.  N.  and  Mary  Griswold  Smith, 
and  the  present  Senator  from  the  Twenty-first  Senatorial  Dis- 
trict, composed  of  the  comities  of  Wilkinson,  Jones  and 
Twiggs,  was  born  in  Jones  county,  October  5,  1851.  He  is  a 
fair  sample  of  the  men  who  rise  by  their  own  exertions  to  posi- 
tions of  honor  and  trust  and  usefulness  in  the  world. 

Mr.  Smith  has  not  had  the  advantages  of  collegiate  training, 
nor  was  he  born  with  a  silver  spoon  in  his  mouth.  His  educa- 
tion, so  far  as  books  go,  was  acquired  in  the  common  schools  of 
the  community.  This  he  has  supplemented  by  a  wide  range  of 
reading,  and  the  absorption  by  this  process,  and  contact  with 
the  busy  duties  of  life,  has  given  him  a  store  of  wisdom  which, 
while  it  may  not  be  classical,  is  yet  extremely  practical,  and 
within  easy  reach  of  his  ready  and  active  mind  whenever  he 
finds  occasion  to  use  it,  either  in  private  or  public  affairs. 

Mr.  Smith,  having  been  reared  on  a  farm,  has  made  that  the 
business  of  his  life,  and  has  been  successful  in  this  calling.  So 
completely  has  he  devoted  himself  to  his  home  affairs  that  he 
has  never  before  sought  public  office.  His  fellow-citizens,  how- 
ever, know  and  appreciate  his  sound  sense,  practical  knowledge 
and  political  consistency,  and  so  when  he  became  a  candidate 
for  his  present  position,  although  with  strenuous  and  powerful 


*  Since  the  above  sketch  was  written  Senator  Smith  has  passed  from  life  to  the 
great  beyond,  thus  ending  a  career  that  promised  to  be  long  and  useful.  The 
sketch  is  left  in  the  book,  as  a  feeble  tribute  by  the  autlior  to  the  worth  of  the 
man. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  135 

opposition,  they  rallied  about  him,  and  gave  him  a  handsome 
majority. 

In  the  Senate  he  was  placed  on  the  Committees  on  Internal 
Improvements,  Agriculture,  Lunatic  Asylum,  Academy  for  the 
Blind,  and  Engrossing,  and  has  made  a  vigilant,  active  and 
painstaking  member,  and  his  record  will  compare  favorably 
with  that  of  any  of  his  colleagues. 

The  father  of  Senator  Smith  represented  the  same  district  in 
the  Senate  twentj-  years  ago,  and  his  brother,  Hon.  Madison  G. 
Smith,  represented  his  county  in  the  lower  House  a  few  years 
since.  In  1874  Senator  Smith  was  married  to  Miss  Lillian  C. 
Stubbs,  and  they  have  one  child,  a  son,  named  in  honor  of  his 
grand-father,  Edgak  B.  Smith.  Mr.  Smith  is  a  genial,  social 
gentleman,  and  has  made  manj^  fi-iends  in  public  life. 
10 


136  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.  W.    F.   JENKINS, 

JUDGE    SUPERIOR    COURTS    OCMULGEE    CIRCUIT. 


3 


Hon.  W.  F.  Jenkins  was  born  in  Sumter  county,  Georgia, 
March  26, 1845.  His  mother  and  father  were  born,  reared,  and 
were  married  in  Putnam  count}^,  but  soon  after  their  marriage 
removed  to  Sumter  county,  and  there  the  subject  of  this  sketch 
first  saw  the  light.  They  remained  there  for  several  years, 
during  which  time  Mr.  Jenkins  represented  that  county  in  the 
Legislature,  but  returned  to  their  native  county,  Putnam. 

J^dge  Jenkins  descends  from  illustrious  families,  on  both 
sides.  His  maternal  grand-father,  Irby  Hudson,  was  for  a 
number  of  years  Speaker  of  the  Georgia  House  of  Representa- 
tives, and  was  also  at  one  time  a  State  Senator.  He  was  each 
time  elected  from  Putnam  county.  His  maternal  grand-mother 
was  a  Flournoy,  descended  from  the  old  Virginia  family  of 
that  name. 

Judge  Jenkins  had  early  and  excellent  educational  ad- 
vantages, but  while  pursuing  his  studies  the  tocsin  of  war 
startled  the  land.  Laying  down  his  Latin  and  mathematics,  he 
entered  the  Confederate  service  as  a  private  in  June,  1861, 
when  but  sixteen  years  of  age,  and  served  through  the  war, 
surrendering  with  Lee's  hungry  and  ragged  veterans  at  Appo- 
mattox. He  was  a  member  of  the  Putnam  Light  Infantry, 
Twelfth  Geoi-gia  Regiment,  Army  of  Northern  Virginia,  and 
followed  the  immortal  Stonewall  Jackson  on  all  his  famous 
marches.  He  was  wounded  four  times — twice  at  Slaughter 
Mountain,  and  twice,  severely,  at  the  second  Manassas.  The 
two  latter  wounds  disabled  him  for  active  service  in  the  ranks, 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  137 

and  he  afterwards  'served  as  ordnance  Sergeant  of  Dale's 
brigade,  commanded,  after  the  death  of  that  officer,  by  gaHant 
Phil  Cook. 

Returning  from  the  war,  Mr.  Jenkins  resumed  his  studies, 
and,  after  thorough  preparation,  went  to  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia, where  he  took  the  full  law  course,  two  years,  and  received 
the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Laws.  Returning  home,  he  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  bar,  September,  1868,  and  entered  at  once  upon 
tlie  practice,  in  which  he  has  amassed  a  reasonable  competence. 

In  1872  Mr.  Jenkins  was  elected  to  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, and  served  in  the  sessions  of  1873-4.  He  was  again 
chosen,  and  served  in  1884—5,  in  both  of  which  services  he 
made  an  excellent  record.  At  home  he  took  a  warm  interest 
in  local  affairs,  and  was  for  several  years  chairman  of  the 
Board  of  Countj'  Commissioners,  held  several  minor  offices,  and 
acted  as  chairman  of  the  County  Democratic  Executive  Com- 
mittee. He  was  elected  Judge  of  the  Ocmulgee  Circuit  in  Ko- 
vember,  1886,  for  a  term  of  four  years  from  January  1,  1887. 

Judge  Jenkins  was  married  to  Miss  Leila  Hood,  of  Wood- 
lawn,  Webster  county,  May  11,  1870,  a  most  gifted  and  ac- 
complished lady,  a  graduate  of  Furlow  Female  College,  and 
also  of  Yassar.  The  union  has  been  blessed  with  three  chil- 
dren— two  sons  and  a  daughter.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Bap- 
tist Church,  in  which  he  is  a  deacon,  and  holds  to  the  good  old 
rule,  "  Pay  up  as  you  go  up,  and  pay  down  as  you  come  down," 
never  having  bought  anything  on  credit  in  his  life.  He  is  mak- 
ing a  fine  record  on  the  bench. 


138  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.  WILLIAM  L.  PEEK, 

SENATOR    FROM    THE    TWENTY-SEVENTH    DISTRICT. 


William  L.  Peek,  of  Conyers,  Rockdale  county,  Senator 
from  the  Twenty-seventh  District,  was  born  in  Newton,  now 
Rockdale  county,  July  31,  1837.  His  father  before  him,  yet 
living,  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  green  old  age,  was  a  farmer,  and 
the  son  follows  in  his  footsteps,  and  has  made  a  success  of  the 
business  of  agriculture. 

Mr.  Peek  enjoyed  only  such  educational  advantages  as  were 
afforded  by  the  common  country  schools.  He  entered  the  Con- 
federate army  at  the  outbreak  of  the  civil  war,  and  served 
through  to  the  end  of  that  terrible  struggle  as  a  private  soldier. 

After  the  war  he  returned  to  agricultural  pursuits,  to  which 
he  gave  his  entire  attention  for  a  number  of  years.  Finally 
his  fellow-citizens  drew  him  from  his  retirement,  and  sent  him 
to  represent  them  in  the  lower  House  of  tlie  General  Assembly. 
His  record  was  so  satisfactory  that  he  was  twice  re-elected  to 
the  House,  serving  in  that  body  for  six  years.  He  was  then 
elected  to  the  Senate,  without  opposition. 

In  the  Senate,  as  in  the  House,  he  has  always  taken  high 
grounds  on  all  public  questions,  and  has  made  a  most  credit- 
able record  as  a  careful,  conscientious  and  painstaking  repre- 
sentative of  the  interests  of  the  people.  Modest  and  retiring, 
making  no  effort  at  display,  nor  seeking  to  use  his  position  as  a 
stepping-stone  to  further  personal  ambitions,  he  has  contented 
himself  always  with  the  performance  of  the  duty  that  lay 
nearest  to  him  to  the  very  best  of  his  ability.  In  religion  he  is 
a  Presbyterian,  and  is  a  strong  prohibitionist,  from  principle. 


I 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


139 


He  was  married  to  Miss  Susan  Smith,  February  20, 1861,  and 
seven  cliildren  have  been  born  to  tliem.  He  has  a  happy  home: 
an  interesting-  family,  and  is  surrounded  by  the  comforts  of 
life.  Social  in  his  nature,  his  intercourse  with  friends  is  unaf- 
fected, open  and  disengenuous,  and  he  enjoys  the  esteem  and 
confidence  of  all  who  know  him. 


UO 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.  If.  H.  CARLTON, 

MEMBER    OF    CONGRESS    FROM    THE    EKJHTH    DISTRICT. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  lJ+1 


HON.  H.  H.  CARLTON, 

MEMBER    OF    CONGRESS    FROM    THE    EIGHTH    DISTRICT. 


At  the  opening  of  the  Fiftieth  Congress,  Hon.  H.  H.  Carlton 
will  take  his  seat  as  Representative  from  the  Eighth  Georgia 
District.  Though  new  to  Congressional  life  Capt.  Carlton  is 
a  veteran  Legislator,  and  has  made  an  honorable  name  and 
fame  throughout  his  State. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  late  civil  war  Capt.  Carlton  was  a 
physician  in  active  practice,  but  answering  promptly  his  coun- 
try's call,  laid  down  the  scalpel  to  take  up  the  weajjons  of 
offense  and  defense,  and  entered  the  Confederate  service  as 
Lieutenant  of  the  famous  Troup  Artillery.  He  was  soon 
elected  Captain  of  the  battery.  He  was  successively  tendered 
commissions  as  Colonel  of  Cavalry,  Major  of  Artillery,  and 
Surgeon  with  the  rank  of  Major,  but  declined  them  all  to 
remain  w  ith  his  command.  Throughout  the  long  and  arduous 
struggle  he  served  with  the  men  who  had  honored  him  by 
making  him  their  leader,  surrendered  with  them,  and  came 
home  when  they  did.  He  bears  upon  his  person  the  marks  of 
the  wounds  which  attest  his  loyalty  to  country  and  to  duty. 

For  a  time  after  the  war  Capt.  Carlton  essayed  the  prac- 
tice of  his  old  profession,  but  compelled  by  wounds  and  ill 
health  to  give  up  medicine,  he  entered  journalism  in  1872,  and 
for  six  years  was  the  editor  and  proprietor  of  the  Athens  Ban- 
ner. In  the  same  year  in  which  he  entered  journalism  he  was 
elected  to  the  General  Assembl}^  from  Clarke  county  and  served 
continuously  in  the  House  of  Re[)resentatives  until  1877.  He 
was  offered  the  Speakership  of  that  body  but  declined  it,  and 


IJ^  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

was  made  Chairman  of  the  Finance  Committee  and  Speaker 
pro  tern,  in  1877.  During  his  service  in  the  House  Capt.  Carl- 
ton introduced  and  passed  the  bill  providing  for  a  geological 
survey  of  the  State,  and  rendered  much  other  valuable  service 
to  the  State  and  people. 

Retiring  of  his  own  volition  from  the  House  at  the  end  of 
his  term  Capt.  Caklton  entered  upon  the  practice  of  law,  for 
which  he  had  been  preparing  himself  for  several  years.  In 
1884  his  fellow-citizens  of  the  Twenty-seventh  Senatorial  Dis-  1 1 
trict  elected  him  to  the  Senate,  and  he  was  chosen  the  presiding 
officer  of  that  body.  At  the  conclusion  of  his  term  he  was 
solicited  by  many  friends  to  make  the  race  for  Governor,  but  I 
declined  to  do  so,  preferring  to  make  the  race  for  Congress  in 
his  own  district. 

In  1886  he  received  the  nomination  for  Congress  in  the 
Eighth  District,  and  was  elected  to  the  Fiftieth  Congress.  His 
term  will  expire  March  3,  1889. 


lU 


REPEESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


~~~Z^xZ^^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  U5 


HOX.    RICHARD    BREVARD    RUSSELL, 

REPRESENTATIVE  FROM  THE  rOUNTY  OF  CLARKE. 


Georgia  is  peculiarly  fortunate  in  the  number  of  young  men 
wlio  in  the  last  few  years  have  forged  their  way  to  the  front  in 
all  the  professions,  industrial  enterprises  and  political  contests 
in  the  State.  They  are  men  of  high  ambitions,  noble  purpo'fees, 
indomitable  energy,  and  are  among  the  most  potent  forces  that 
are  to-day  pressing  the  State  forward  toward  the  proudest  place 
in  the  Southern  galaxj'  of  grand  and  noble  commonwealths. 

Ranking  among  the  first  of  these  is  the  subject  of  this  sketch, 
Richard  Brevard  Russell.  Mr.  Russell,  though  an  old  legis- 
lator, this  being  his  third  term  in  the  House,  is  yet  a  young- 
man,  being  less  than  twent^^-seven  years  of  age.  Mr.  Russell 
has  a  lineage  to  be  proud  of.  His  father,  Mr.  William  J.  Rus- 
sell, is  a  native  of  Libert}'  county,  whose  ancestors  came  over 
in  the  Mayflower.  His  mother,  formerl}^  Miss  Harriet 
Brumby,  is  a  descendant  of  the  French  Huguenots,  and  is  the 
grand-daughter  of  Ephraim  Brevard,  the  author  of  the  Meck- 
lenburg Declaration  of  Independence.  Her  father,  Prof.  R.  T. 
Bruiniby,  made  the  investigation  of  the  Alabama  coal  fields, 
which  has  resulted  in  the  Avouderful  tale  of  Southern  progress 
now  told  every  day,  and  was  for  fifteen  years  professor  of 
geology  and  chemistry  in  the  I'niversity  of  Alabama,  and  for 
nine  years  in  the  University  of  South  Carolina. 

Mr.  Russell  received  his  education  at  the  University  of 
Georgia,  which  he  entered  in  1870,  having  been  prepared  there- 
for by  his  mother.  He  graduated  with  the  second  honor  of  a 
remarkably  able  class  in  1879,  with  the  degrees  of  A.  B.,  B. 


146  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

1 

Ph.,  and  LL.  B.  Of  college  honors  as  debater  in  his  societies, 
and  other  distinctions,  he  received  a  large  number.  Entering 
at  once  upon  active  business  life,  he  was  for  two  years  associate 
editor  of  the  Athens  Chronicle,  and  left  this  to  commence  the 
practice  of  law  in  1880,  which  profession  he  still  follows,  with 
pronounced  success.  He  was  for  a  time  associate  editor  of  the 
Banner-  Watchman,  but  gave  it  up  to  devote  his  entire  time  to 
his  profession. 

In  the  General  Assembly  Mr.  Russell  has,  in  all  his  three 
terms,  been  an  active,  energetic  and  painstaking  Representa- 
tive. He  secured  in  1884  a  $5,00(J  appropriation  for  the  Uni- 
versity, passed  a  free-school  bill  for  Athens,  gave  them  a  vote 
on  .prohibition,  and  chartered  a  street  car  line,  now  in  success- 
ful operation,  as  is  the  free  school  system  which  he  inaugurated. 
In  the  present  house  he  is  chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
Banks,  and  a  member  of  those  on  Railroads,  General  Judiciary, 
Education,  Penitentiarj^  and  Rules.  He  has  always  been  a 
strong  friend  to  education,  and  is  a  member  from  the  city  at 
large  of  the  Athens  Board  of  Education. 

Mr.  Russell,  was  married  May  13,  1883,  to  Miss  Minnie 
Tyler,  of  Barnesville,  Georgia.  She  was  a  gifted  and  beauti- 
ful woman,  keenly  appreciative  of  her  Ijrilliant  young  luisband 
and  loyally  attached  to  him  and  his  interests.  Earth  has  held 
few  brighter  pictures  than  their  home  life  painted  on  the  can- 
vass of  the  years,  but  January  6,  1886,  she  was  called  hence, 
and  the  wing  of  woe  hung  low  its  sable  sliadow  athwart  the 
hearthstone  at  which  he  had  found  his  purest  and  sweetest 
pleasures  and  highest  inspiration., 

It  is  the  fashion  in  these  days  to  say  of  men  that  tliey  are 
self-made,  but  this  can  l)e  said  of  a  truth  of  the  subject  of  this 
sketch.  He  has  earned  every  dollar  he  has  ever  had.  and  fought 
his  own  way  to  the  front.  He  was  far  the  youngest  member  of 
the  General  Assembly  of  1882,  being  barelj^  twenty-one  when 
elected.  His  success  in  politics  has  been  phenomenal.  In  his 
last  race  he  beat  the  combined  opposition  of  two  factions  in 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  W 


his  eoiiuty  b}'  a  round  majority,  and  has  never  been  defeated 
in  any  contest  before  the  people. 

Personally  Mr.  Kussell  has  most  winning  manners,  a  charm- 
ing presence,  and  many  social  gifts.  Few  men  are  more  popu- 
lar among  their  associates.  A  fluent,  graceful,  and  eloquent 
speaker,  and  well  equipped  in  the  knowledge  of  public  affairs, 
a  long;  and  useful  career  stretches  before  him.. 


U8  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


i 


HON.  THOMAS  CRAWFORD  GIBSON," 

REPRESENTATIVE    FROM    THE    COUNTY    OF    GLASSCOCK. 


Among  tlie  popular  young  bachelors  of  the  present  House  of 
Representatives  the  subject  of  this  sketch  takes  a  foremost 
rank,  and  is  withal  a  practical,  level-headed,  painstaking  legis- 
lator, who  looks  faithfully  after  the  interests  of  the  constitu- 
tency  which  honored  him  with  their  suffi'ages. 

Thomas  Crawford  Gibson  was  born  -  in  Warren  county, 
Georgia,  December  28,  1855.  He  is  the  second  of  a  family  of 
six  sons  born  to  Cicero  Gibson,  his  mother,  previous  to  her 
marriage,  having  been  Miss  Adkins,  a  daughter  of  Mr.  Aaron 
A.  Adkins,  a  prominent  and  popular  citizen.  Both  were  con- 
sistent memi)ers  of  the  Methodist  Church.  Mr.  Cicero  Gibson 
was  honored  by  his  fellow-citizens  with  a  seat  in  the  Legisla- 
ture in  1861  and  1862,  and  now  his  son  occupies  the  same  posi- 
tion. 

Mr.  Gibson  was  sent  to  school  first  to  Augusta,  and  subse- 
quently to  Athens,  where  he  graduated  in  1875,  taking  the  agri- 
cultural medal.  In  1876  he  entered  upon  farming  operations, 
which  he  has  followed  with  energy  and  made  a  success.  He 
makes  an  independent  living,  lays  by  something  for  a  rainy 
day,  and  is  in  all  respects  a  fair  sample  of  the  educated,  intel- 
ligent young  farmei'S  of  the  new  regime  in  the  Sunny  South. 

In  i)olitics  Mr.  Gibson  is,  and  has  alwaj^s  been,  true  to  Demo- 
cratic faith  and  principles.  In  1871)  he  was  commissioned 
Notary  Public  and  ex-officio  Justice  of  the  Peace.  He  was  a 
member  of  the  County  Board  of  Education  in  1882,  and  was 
County  School  Commissioner  in  1884,  giving  much  time  and 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


149 


labor  to  the  cause  of  education,  of  which  lie  is  a  strong  advo- 
cate and  ardent  champion.  He  won  his  present  seat  over  two 
strong  opponents,  there  being  no  party  nominations. 

In  the  House  he  is  on  the  Committees  on  Education,  Agri- 
culture, Enrollment,  Emigration  and  Journals,  and  is  prompt 
and  industrious  in  the  discharge  of  the  duties  they  impose.  He 
is  a  young  man  of  sound  judgment,  strict  integrity,  and  is  an 
honor  to  his  count3^*and  State. 


150 


REPRESENTA  TIVE  GEOR  GIANS. 


HON.  PARISH  CARTER  TATE, 

REPRESENTATIVE  FROM  THE  COUNTY  OF  TATE, 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  151 


HON.  FARISH  CARTER  TATE, 

REPRESENTATIVE    FROM    THE    COUNTY    OF    PICKENS. 


In  nothing  is  Georgia,  the  Empire  State  of  the  South,  greater 
and  her  future  more  promising  than  in  the  number,  character 
and  ability  of  the  young  men  who  must,  in  the  nature  of 
things,  come  in  a  few  years  to  manage  her  affairs  and  control 
her  destiny.  Among  those  for  whom  the  near  future  has  in 
store  high  honors  and  important  trusts  is  the  subject  of  this 
sketch. 

Hon.  Farish  Carter  Tate,  son  of  William  and  Mary  M. 
Tatj:,  was  born  in  Pickens  county,  Georgia,  November  20, 
1856.  He  grew  up,  as  most  country  boys,  busied  about  the 
labors  of  his  father's  farm,  and  incidentally  thereto  received 
such  educational  advantages  as  were  aftbrded  by  the  country 
schools  in  the  neighborhood.  Subsequently  he  went  to  college, 
and  graduated  in  187<S,  and  immediately  thereafter  entered 
upon  the  study  of  law  in  the  office  of  Hon.  Hiram  P.  Bell,  at 
dimming,  Georgia.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1880,  and 
entered  upon  the  practice  at  Jasper,  Pickens  county. 

But  law  was  not  the  only  thing  he  studied  while  under  Col. 
Bell's  roof.  The  fair  daughter  of  his  preceptor,  Miss  Julia 
BelL;  enslaved  the  heart  of  the  young  student,  and  while  he 
learned  Blac^kstone  he  learned  love  as  well,  and  the  year  after 
his  admission  to  the  bar,  November  2,  1881,  they  were  united 
in  marriage,  as  handsome  and  happy  a  couple  as  ever  plighted 
troth.  One  son.  Master  Howard  Tate,  now  three  years  of 
age,  has  l)lessed  the  union. 

11 


152  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

In  1882  Mr.  Tate  first  entered  politics,  and  was  elected  to  ■ 
the  House  of  Representatives,  lias  been  twice  re-elected,  and  is 
now  serving  his  third  term.  In  1882  he  was  a  member  of  the 
General  Judiciary  Committee,  and  also  a  member  of  those  on 
Railroads  and  Penitentiary.  In  1884  he  was  on  the  same  com- 
mittees, being  chairman  of  that  on  Railroads,  and  in  the  present 
House  is  chairman  of  the  Special  Judiciary,  and  serves  also  on 
others  of  importance. 

Mr.  Tate  has  been  active,  both  in  local  and  State  politics. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  State  Democratic  Executive  Commit- 
tee 1882,  '83,  '84,  '85,  and  rendered  valuable  service  to  his  party 
in  this  position.  He  is  a  forcible  speaker,  sometimes  impetuous, 
always  earnest,  but  courteous  to  an  opponent,  and  makes  hosts 
of  warm  and  enthusiastic  friends  wherever  he  goes.  His  father 
and  uncle  are  the  owners  of  the  celebrated  Pickens  county 
marble  quarries,  and  Mr.  Tate  is  financially  assured  of  a  suf- 
ficiency of  this  world's  goods  to  satisfy  any  reasonable  man. 
Personally  he  is  a  handsome  man.  Six  feet  tall,  weighing 
nearly  two  hundred  pounds,  with  dark  hair,  eyes,  and  brown 
mustache,  in  the  full  flush  of  a  perfect  manhood  and  unim- 
paired health,  he  is  a  commanding  figure  that  would  attract 
attention  anywhere.  With  unquestioned  ability,  earnest  de- 
votion to  the  work  in  hand,  and  princely  social  traits,  it  is  no 
wonder  that  he  should  be  one  of  the  most  popular  members  of 
the  present  House. 


15J^ 


REPRESENTA  Tl  VE  GEOR  GIANS. 


HON.  THOMAS   W.  GRIMES, 

MEMBER    OF    CONGRESS    FROM    THE    FOURTH    DISTRICT. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  155 


HON.  THOMAS  W.  GRIMES, 

MEMBER    OF    CONGRESS    FROM    THE    FOURTH    DISTRICT. 


At  the  assembling  of  the  Fiftieth  Congress  among  the  new 
members  who  will  take  a  seat  for  the  first  time  in  the  House  of 
Eepresentatives  will  be  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  Hon.  Thomas 
W.  Grimes,  of  Columbus,  member-elect  from  the  Fourth  Geor- 
gia District.  If  he  does  not  make  a  record  that  shall  be  credit- 
able to  the  intelligent  constitutency  which  has  chosen  him  to 
represent  them  he  will  belie  all  the  past  history  of  the  man. 

Thomas  W.  Grimes  is  a  native  Georgian,  to  the  manor  born, 
having  first  seen  the  light  in  Greene  comity.  He  received  his 
education,  primarily,  in  the  country  schools,  subsequently  at- 
tended Emory  College,  and  the  X'niversity  of  Georgia,  gradu- 
ating from  the  latter  institution.  He  served  as  a  private  soldier 
in  the  Confederate  army  during  the  last  eighteen  months  of  the 
war  between  the  States. 

After  the  war  Mr.  Grimes  read  law,  and  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  of  the  Chattahoochee  circuit,  and  commenced  the  practice 
of  his  profession  at  Columbus,  Muscogee  county.  His  first  po- 
litical office  came  to  him  in  1<SG8,  when  he  was  elected  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Georgia  House  of  Eepresentatives,  and  served  dur- 
ing the  sessions  of  1868-9.  He  was  again  elected  to  the  same 
position,  and  served  in  1875-().  In  the  latter  year,  a  misunder- 
standing growing  up  between  him  and  his  colleague  on  a  local 
measure  regulating  the  whisky  traffic  in  the  county,  and  in- 
volving the  old  Algerine  law  requiring  a  property  qualification 
for  voters,  Mr.  Grimes  resigned  his  scat  in  the  House,  remand- 
ing the  question  to  the  people.     After  only  a  three-days'  can- 


156  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

vass  he  was  re-elected  over  two  opponents,  by  a  large  majority 
over  both,  his  people  thus  endorsing  the  position  he  had  as- 
sumed. 

Upon  the  conclusion  of  his  term  in  the  House  Mr.  Grimes 
was  nominated  and  elected  to  the  Senate,  and  served  in  that 
body  in  1878-9.  In  1880  he  was  elected  Solicitor  General  of 
the  Chattahoochee  circuit  by  the  Legislature  for  a  term  of  four 
years,  and  was  re-elected,  without  opposition,  in  1884  for  an- 
other term,  but  resigned  in  July,  1886,  to  accept  the  Democratic 
nomination  for  Congress,  which  he  had  received  over  several 
competitors.  After  a  spirited  contest  against  an  Independent 
he  was  elected  to  the  Fiftieth  Congress,  having  defeated  his  op- 
ponent in  every  county  in  the  district.  He  has  ahead  of  him 
a  future  that  any  man  of  his  age  might  well  envy. 


158 


REPRESENTA TIVE  GEOR GIANS. 


HON.  ROGER  L.  GAMBLE,  JR., 

REPRESENTATIVE    FROM    THE    COUNTY    OF    JEFFERSON. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  159 


HON.  ROGER  L.  GAMBLE,  JR., 

REPRESENTATIVE    FROM    THE    COUNTY    OF   JEFFERSON. 


Tliough  quiet,  modest  and  unobtrusive,  any  one  acquainted 
with  the  personnel  of  the  House  of  Representatives  would  put 
the  subject  of  this  sketch  among  the  foremost  of  the  prom.ising 
young  lawyers  of  that  bodj'. 

Mr.  Gamble  was  born  at  Louisville,  Jefferson  county,  Geor- 
gia, May  20,  1851.  He  had  fine  educational  advantages,  going 
to  school  in  his  bojiiood  to  William  Strong  Loavery,  in  Louis- 
ville; Hon.  W.  J.  NoRTHEN,  at  Mt.  Zion,  Hancock  county,  and 
subsequently  to  Richard  Malcom  Johnson,  author  of  "  Dukes- 
borough  Tales"  and  "Old  Mark  Langston,"  both  while  he 
taught  near  Sparta,  Georgia,  and  at  Baltimore,  Maryland.  He 
entered  the  junior  class  at  the  State  University  in  1869,  and 
graduated  in  1871  in  a  class  with  R.  L.  Berner,  T.  J.  Chappell 
and  Edgar  A.  Simmons,  all  prominent  members  of  the  present 
House,  as  well  as  a  number  of  other  gentlemen  in  all  parts  of 
the  State. 

Upon  the  completion  of  his  college  course  Mr.  Gamble  com- 
menced the  study  of  law  in  the  office  of  William  Hope  Hull, 
and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Augusta  the  latter  i)art  of  1882. 
In  Januarj^,  1883,  he  located  in  Louisville,  his  childhood's 
home,  and  commenced  the  practice  of  his  profession. 

In  1874  he  was  appointed  by  Gov.  James  M.  Smith  Judge  of 
the  County  Court  of  Jefferson  county,  but  was  too  young  to 
hold  the  office.  He  was  afterwards  appointed  County  Solicitor 
by  the  Governor,  and  held  that  office  until  1880,  when  he  was 
elected  Solicitor  General  of  the  Middle  circuit,  and  held  the 


160  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

office  for  four  years,  and  did  not  seek  re-election  at  the  end  of 
the  term. 

In  1886  Mr.  Gamble  was  nominated  by  the  Democracy  of  his 
county  for  the  Hou^e  of  Kepresentatives,  and  after  one  of  the 
most  heated  contests  ever  known  in  the  county,  against  wealthy 
and  powerful  opponents,  who  ran  an  independent  ticket,  was 
elected  by  a  handsome  majority,  and  lias  made  an  able  and 
popular  representative. 

Mr.  Gamble  is  the  son  of  Hon.  Roger  L.  Gamble,  Sr.,  a 
prominent  citizen  of  Jefferson  county,  and  for  manj^  years  a 
resident  of  Augusta.  His  mother  was  a  daughter  of  Hon. 
James  P.  Gobert,  whose  father  was  a  French  Consvil  at 
Charleston,  South  Carolina.  Mr.  Gamble  was  married  a  few 
years  since  to  Miss  Fannie  Hunter,  of  Louisville,  an  accom- 
plished and  popular  young  lady  of  high  family,  and  has  a  de- 
lightful home,  in  which  he  takes  great  pride  and  delight. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  161 


HON.  A.  P.  WOFFORD, 

SENATOR    FROM    THE    THIRTY-THIRD    DISTRICT. 


Hon.  A.  P.  AVoFFORD.  Senator  from  the  Thirty-third  Sena- 
torial District  of  Georgia,  Avas  born  April  15,  1844,  in  Banks 
eonnt}',  Georgia.  The  years  of  his  boyhood  and  young  man- 
hood were  spent  at  the  home  of  his  birth,  being  occupied  with 
such  pursuits  and  pleasures  as  usually  fill  the  days  of  ovir  boys 
and  3'oung  men. 

His  father  being  in  good  financial  circumstances  young  AYof- 
FORD  enjoyed  the  advantages  resulting  from  a  collegiate  train- 
ing, having  been  educated  at  the  Baptist  College  located  in 
Cassville,  Tennessee.  Being  possessed  of  a  strong  mind,  which 
had  been  well  cultivated,  occupying  an  enviable  social  position 
among  the  j'oung  men  of  his  county,  he  looked  forward  to  a 
career  of  usefulness  and  honor. 

But  he  was  not  permitted  to  enter  upon  it  at  once.  Keturn- 
ing  home  from  college  he  saw  that  Georgia  was  in  arms  against 
a  powerful  foe,  and,  acting  according  to  the  dictates  of  his 
patriotic  nature,  he  shouldered  his  musket  and  for  four  long 
years  the  Confederacy  knew  no  better  soldier  than  he.  If  the 
march  was  long  or  the  danger  great,  he  could  place  aside  all 
thought  of  self  and  enter  uncomplainingly  upon  the  duties 
which  his  country  demanded.  But  Avars,  like  all  other  human 
things,  must  end.  and  when  the  sun  of  the  Confederacy  had 
set  in  gloom  and  defeat  upon  the  proudest  people  the  world 
has  ever  known.  Mr.  Wofford  accepted  the  results  of  the 
contest  and  went  to  work  to  make  for  himself  a  habitation 
and  a  name.     Nature   had  given  to  him  a  splendid  constitu- 


162  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

tion,  which  his  four  years'  service  seemed  to  have  impaired  but 
little,  and  this,  in  connection  with  an  indomitable  will,  gave 
him  the  lever  power  with  which  to  work  out  success. 

In  1868  he  moved  to  Cartersville,  Georgia,  and  began  the 
practice  of  law.  Here  he  lived  until  1884,  during  which  time  he 
added  to  his  reputation  as  a  lawyer  and  financier.  For  four 
years  he  was  honored  with  the  Mayoralty  of  Cartersville,  and 
the  era  of  prosperity  which  characterized  the  city  in  all  its 
departments  bear  ample  proof  of  his  executive  ability. 

Senator  Wofford  was  married  July  4, 1870,  to  Miss  Lula  E. 
Parrott,  daughter  of  Judge  J.  R.  Parrott,  a  distinguished 
jurist  of  Cartensville.  Their  union  has  proved  a  happy  one, 
and  eight  children,  four  boys  and  four  girls,  have  been  given 
them  to  make  home  happy  and  to  cause  them  to  feel  that  they 
have  something  for  which  to  live  and  labor. 

In  politics  Mr.  Wofford  has  always  been  a  Democrat,  and 
upon  thoroughly  democratic  principles  he  was  elected  to  the 
Senate  in  1886.  During  the  session  of  1886  he  represented  his 
people  with  ability  and  devotion.  His  seat  was  rarely  vacant, 
and  from  the  great  interest  which  he  took  in  all  affairs  pertain- 
ing to  his  section  his  people  may  know  that  their  interests  are 
in  safe  hands.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Special  and  General  Ju- 
diciary, Financial  and  Railroad  Committees,  and  has  given 
abundant  evidence  of  his  ability  to  grapple  with  all  kinds  of 
questions  pertaining  to  State  legislation. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  163 


HON.  NATHAN  L.  HUTCHINS, 

JUDGE    SUPERIOR    COURTS,    WESTERN    CIRCUIT. 


There  hardly  hves  in  Georgia  to-day  a  man  more  universally 
popular  than  Judge  Hutchins.  Gifted  with  all  the  social  traits 
that  endear  men  to  each  other  in  honorable  intercourse,  blessed 
with  a  genial  nature,  alwaj^s  cheerful,  companionable  and  ap- 
proachable, he  is  a  favorite  wherever  known.  He  comes  of  a 
noble  lineage,  his  father,  who  bore  the  same  name,  being  a  dis- 
tinguished lawj^er  and  politician,  and  holding  for  many  years 
the  position  now  so  ably  filled  by  his  son.  His  mother  was  a 
daughter  of  Hines  Holt,  Sr.,  at  one  time  Treasurer  of  the 
State  of  Georgia. 

Judge  Hutchins  was  born  at  Lawrenceville,  Gwinnett  county, 
Georgia,  October  4,  1835,  graduated  at  Emory  College,  entered 
upon  the  study  of  law,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  just  before 
the  breaking  out  of  the  civil  war.  He  laid  down  briefs  and 
books,  and  entered  the  service  as  First  Lieutenant  in  the  Six- 
teenth Georgia  Regiment.  He  was  promoted  to  the  Captaincy 
of  his  company,  again  to  Lieutenant  Colonel,  and  with  this 
rank  was  placed  in  command  of  the  Third  Georgia  Battalion 
of  sharp-shooters.  He  served  with  conspicuous  gallantry  in  all 
these  positions,  and  at  the  bloody  battles  of  Malvern's  Hill, 
Crampton's  Gap,  Sharpsburg,  Fredericksburg,  Gettj'sburg, 
Knoxville,  Wilderness,  Cold  Harbor,  and  in  all  the  fearful  con- 
tests around  Richmond,  was  ever  at  the  post  of  duty.  He  was 
thrice  wounded  in  the  battles  of  Sharpsburg  and  the  Wilder- 
ness, and  received  a  fourth  in  a  skirmish  on  the  north  sid(^  of 
the  James  river,  when  (Jrant  sj)rung  the  Petersburg  mine.    Tu 


16 Jf.  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

April,  1865,  just  before  the  surrender,  he  was  captured  and 
confined  at  the  old  capitol  prison,  Washington,  and  Johnson's 
Island,  until  July,  1865,  when  he  was  released  on  parol. 

In  1876  Judge  Hutchins  was  elected  to  the  lower  House  of 
the  General  Asseml)ly,  and  was  re-elected  in  1877.  He  was 
chairman  of  the  Finance  Committee  of  the  latter  House,  in 
which  capacity  he  rendered  valuable  service  to  the  State.  Re- 
tiring from  politics  at  the  end  of  his  term,  he  devoted  himself 
entirely  to  the  practice  of  his  profession  until  1882,  when  he 
was  elected  Judge  of  the  Western  circuit  by  the  Legislature, 
without  opposition.  He  was  re-elected  by  the  present  General 
Assembl}^,  again  without  opposition,  for  a  term  of  four  years, 
which  will  expire  January  1,  1891. 

Judge  HuTCHiNs  is  a  Director  of  the  Georgia  Railroad,  and 
is  in  comfortable  circumstances.  He  was  married  March  29, 
1866,  to  Miss  Carrie  Orr,  of  Lawrenceville,  and  has  a  happy 
home  and  a  charming  family. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  165 


HON.  JOHNATHAN  N.  COGGINS, 

REPRESENTATIVE    FROM    THE    COUNTY    OF    BANKS. 


Endowed  with  sound  judgment,  and  a  clear  active  mind, 
possessing  energy  and  ability.  Banks  county  has  reason  to  con- 
gratulate herself  upon  her  able  representation  in  the  House  at 
the  hands  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch. 

Mr.  CoGGixs  was  born  in  Gilmer  count}^,  Georgia,  March  8, 
1847,  and  is  the  sixth  in  a  family  of  ten  children  of  Mr.  J.  T. 
CoGGiNS,  formerly  of  Gilmer  but  now  a  resident  of  Canton, 
Georgia.  His  mother  was  Miss  Elizabeth  King  previous  to 
her  marriage,  and  was  a  native  of  North  Carolina. 

Mr.  Coggins  volunteered  in  the  Confederate  army  during  the 
war  between  the  States,  and  bore  his  full  share  in  that  teiTible 
struggle.  Returning  home  he  entered  upon  and  followed  agri- 
cultural pursuits  until  1870  when  he  entered  the  mercantile 
line,  and  followed  that  business  until  within  a  year  or  two 
since  when  he  was  forced  to  retire  on  account  of  ill  health. 
He  was  educated  in  the  public  schools.  Starting  in  life  with- 
out a  dollar  he  has  been  so  successful  in  his  enterprises  as  to 
amass  a  reasonable  competence. 

Mr.  Coggins  was  married  in  1867  to  Miss  Marcjaret  J.  Fow- 
ler, who  after  havmg  borne  him  a  family  of  five  lovely  children 
died  in  June,  1886,  leaving  a  shadow  of  gloom  upon  the  lovely 
home  in  which  he  had  installed  his  loved  ones.  He  has  been 
a  citizen  of  Banks  county  since  1876,  and  has  always  been  a 
public  spirited  and  popular  citizen.  In  the  last  campaign  he 
had  as  opponents  a  Republican  and  an  Independent  candidate, 


166        ,       REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

he  being  the  regular  Democratic  nominee,  and  was  elected  by 
a  handsome  majority. 

During  the  last  session  of  the  General  Assembly,  though 
prosti'ated  part  of  the  time  by  illness,  he  found  time  to  do 
valuable  work  in  the  several  committees  of  which  he  is  a  mem- 
ber and  took  a  keen  and  unflagging  interest  in  all  matters  of 
legislation  affecting  the  welfare  of  his  people  and  the  State  at 
large. 


-^-t-l^- 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  167 


HON.  W.  W.  THOMAS, 

CAPITOL    COMMISSIONER. 


Hon.  W.  W.  Thomas,  of  the  city  of  Athens,  is  the  junior 
member  of  the  Commission.  He  was  born  in  Athens,  Georgia, 
on  tlie  21st  of  Maj\  1849,  and  has  resided  there  the  greater 
portion  of  his  life.  He  received  his  education  at  the  University 
of  Georgia,  and  graduated  from  that  institution  in  1868.  In 
the  following  year  he  took  the  degree  of  Civil  Engineering,  and 
for  several  years  engaged  in  the  pursuit  of  his  profession.  He 
was  engaged  in  nearly  every  important  survey  made  in  North- 
ern and  Northeast  Georgia  during  that  time,  and  by  much 
practical  experience  became  one  of  the  most  expert  civil  engi- 
neers in  the  South. 

In  1875  the  Southern  Mutual  Insurance  Company,  that  grand 
old  institution  of  which  everj^  Georgian  is  proud,  made  to  him 
a  proposition  which  induced  him  to  abandon  his  profession  and 
enter  its  service  as  assistant  secretary  and  adjuster  of  losses  by 
fire.  For  the  past  ten  years  he  has  filled  these  positions  ably 
and  well.  He  is  efiicient,  and  his  untiring  energy  and  the 
business-like  manner  in  which  he  performs  the  duties  of  his 
ofiice  make  his  services  almost  indispensible. 

Mr.  Thomas  also  enjoys  the  distinguished  honor  of  having 
been  the  youngest  Trustee  of  the  State  University  ever  ap- 
pointed. He  was  married  in  the  month  of  January,  18G8,  to 
Miss  Brown,  an  accomplished  young  lad}  ,  the  adopted  daugh- 
ter of  the  late  Gov.  Charles  J,  Jenkins,  and  the  grand-daugh- 
12 


168  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

ter  of  Gen.  Jacob  Brown,  at  one  time  Commander-in-Chief  of 
the  United  States  army,  and  has  three  bright  and  interesting 
children. 

Prior  to  his  appointment  as  a  member  of  the  Capitol  Com- 
mission Mr.  Thomas  had  never  served  in  any  official  capacity, 
except  as  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  State  Uni- 
versity. His  appointment  as  a  Commissioner  was  a  complete 
surprise  to  him,  as  it  was  to  the  other  members.  He  was  not 
an  applicant,  and  the  first  intimation  of  his  appointment  was 
sent  to  him  by  telegraph.  It  is  understood  that  he  was  ap- 
pointed on  the  score  of  his  technical  knowledge  of  the  manner 
in  which  the  work  of  building  a  new  capitol  was  to  be  done. 
On  this  account  he  is  an  invaluable  member  of  the  Commis- 
sion, entering  into  his  work  zealously  and  with  the  best  inter- 
est of  the  State  at  heart. 


t^  ;--#-a^^Mwi^W.^W^"^^p--:  "^^^ 


170 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


(JJui^^'ru^   ^oujyi->4 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  171 


HON.  HENRY  WILKES  JONES  HAM* 

REPRESENTATIVE    FROM    THE    COUNTY    OF    HALL. 


In  this  volume  of  brief  pen  pictures  of  Georgia's  representa- 
tive men  now  in  public  life  this  sketch  of  its  author  would  not 
appear  did  the  task  of  writing  it  and  the  responsibility  of  pub- 
lishing it  devolve  upon  him.  A  friend  has  assumed  the  duty 
of  preparing  it,  and  though  conscious  of  his  inability  to  discharge 
it  satisfactorily  to  himself  or  the  public  he,  in  cdmmon  with  Mr. 
Ham's  many  friends,  insists  on  its  admission. 

Hexry  AVllkes  Jones  Ham  was  born  in  Burke  county,  Ga., 
July  3, 1851.  His  father,  John  D.  Ham,  was  a  native  of  the  same 
county,  and  though  a  man  of  limited  means,  and  in  humble  cir- 
cumstances, he  was  noted  for  his  many  estimable  traits  of  charac- 
ter, prominent  among  which  was  his  devotion  to  the  tenets  of 
the  Baptist  Church,  of  which  he  was  long  a  consistent  member, 
and  his  faithful  adlierence  to  Democratic  principles,  as  taught  by 
Jefferson  and  held  and  expounded  by  Calhoun.  His  mother 
was  IVIiss  C.  S.  A.  Davis,  by  birth  a  ISTorth  Carolinian ;  she  was 
also  a  devoted  member  of  the  church  to  which  lier  husband  be- 
longed. Being  an  only  child,  Mr.  Ham  was  sedulously  guarded 
by  his  fond  parents  from  evil  communications  and  carefully 
trained  to  fear  God.  With  such  examples  and  precepts  con- 
stantly impressed  upon  him,  as  was  to  have  been  expected,  he 
has  strictly  adherred  to  the  church  in  which  he  was  brought  up. 
In  those  days  educational  facilities  were  limited,  and  the  sub- 


*For  this  all  too  partial  sketch  the  compiler  is  indebted  to  his  friend,  Hon.  J. 
H.  Butt,  tlie  editor  of  the  Gainesville  Ea'jh;. 


172  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


1 


ject  of  our  sketch  only  went  to  school  about  eighteen  months,  at 
odd  times,  between  the  7th  and  18th  years  of  his  age. 

The  balance  of  his  early  life  was  spent  at  hard  work  on  the 
farm.  Naturally  bright,  intellectually,  and  ambitious  to  rise  in 
the  world,  he  made  such  good  use  of  his  brief  time  at  school  and 
the  few  books  that  fell  in  his  way,  that  by  the  time  he  reached 
early  manhood  he  had  fitted  himself  for  admission  to  the  bar, 
which  profession  he  followed  some  four  or  five  years.  His 
tastes,  however,  were  decidedly  literary,  and  from  1874  to  1881 
he  devoted  himself  to  journalism  and  was  during  that  time  con- 
nected with  several  leading  newspapers  in  this  and  other  States. 
His  fluent,  gracefiil  and  attractive  style  made  him  considerable 
reputation  as  a  writer,  while  his  versatility  of  genius,  constant 
flow  of  humor  and  sparkling  wit,  won  for  him  the  respect,  ad- 
miration and  warm  friendship  of  his  contemporaries  and 
readers. 

He  retired  from  journalism  in  1881  and  engaged  in  other  pur- 
suits. He  was  journalizing  clerk  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives during  the  session  of  1877.  In  1882,  '83  and  '84,  he  held 
the  office  of  Messenger  of  the  National  House  of  Representa- 
tives. Since  then  he  has  resumed  the  practice  of  the  law,  but 
the  trend  of  his  mind  being  still  in  the  direction  of  literary  pur- 
suits, he  devotes  much  of  his  time  to  public  speaking,  particu- 
larly on  literary  and  moral  subjects,  to  extensive  miscellaneous 
reading  and  to  frequent  contributions  to  the  press. 

Being  a  Democrat  of  the  strictest  school,  well  informed  on 
political  affairs  and  skilled  in  party  management,  the  people  of 
his  county  in  order  to  avail  themselves  of  such  valuable  services 
as  he  was  so  well  calculated  to  render  them  elected  him  to  the 
present  General  Assembly.  From  his  first  entry  into  the  House 
of  Representatives  he  has  held  a  high  position  and  is  regarded 
as  one  of  the  most  efiicient  and  useful  members  of  that  body. 
His  constituents  are  satisfied  with  the  manner  he  has  repre- 
sented them,  as  his  course  as  a  legislator  is  equally  as  honor- 
able to  them  as  it  has  been  creditable  to  himself. 


I 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  173 


I 


On  November  13th,  1878,  Mr.  Ham  was  happily  married  to 
Miss  Anna  E.  Cook,  in  Jefterson  county,  Ga.  Their  union  has 
been  blessed  with  five  bright  and  promising  children — Lillian 
Eliza  and  Anna  Lucille,  girls,  and  Walter,  Jones  and 
Lamar,  boys.  Domestic  in  his  habits,  he  makes  a  model  hus- 
band and  father,  and  finds  his  purest  joj^s  around  his  own 
hearthstone  and  in  the  bosom  of  his  o^\^l  family. 

Socially  Mr.  Ham  is  generous,  affable,  witty  and  always  enter- 
taining, and  makes  a  fine  impression  on  all  whom  he  meets. 
Taken  all  in  all  he  is  a  fine  specimen  of  a  representative 
Georgian. 


17 J^  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.  GEORGE  R.  BROWN, 

REPRESENTATIVE    FROM    THE    COUNTY    OF    CHEROKEE. 


Unless  present  indications  fail  of  their  legitimate  fruition, 
and  his  record  should  entirely  belie  present  premise  and  the 
history  of  the  name  he  bears,  Georgia  and  the  country  are  des- 
tined to  hear  much  in  the  future  of  the  young  gentleman  whose 
name  heads  this  sketch. 

The  author  of  these  biograpliies  has  studiously  avoided  any- 
thing that  might  savor  of  extravagant  encomium,  and  in  his 
anxiety  to  have  the  work  free  from  cheap  clap-trap  and  multi- 
plicity of  commendatorj'^  adjectives,  has  perhaps  erred  in  the 
other  direction,  and  made  it  painfully  matter-of-fact.  It  will 
be  understood,  therefore,  that  when  we  say  that  Mr.  Bkown 
will  not  owe  whatever  he  may  achieve  in  the  future  to  the  fact 
that  he  is  the  son  of  Judge  James  R.  Brown,  or  the  nephew  of 
Senator  Joseph  E.  Brown,  but  to  his  own  genius,  application, 
studious  habits  and  personal  energies,  we  but  voice  the  convic- 
tions formed  from  a  more  or  less  intimate  acquaintance  with 
the  subject  of  our  sketch. 

We  can  imagine  few  things  more  embarrassing  to  an  earnest, 
ambitious  and  self-reliant  young  man  than  to  have  the  shadow 
of  a  famous  lineage  and  connection  continually  dwarf  his  own 
personality.  "I  am  only  the  son  of  Stephen  A.  Douglass," 
said  the  scion  of  that  nature's  nobleman,  almost  with  bitter- 
ness, "and  whatever  I  may  do  or  be  my  own  effort  is  over- 
shadowed by  his  name." 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


And  so  it  is  witli  earnestness  and  sincerity  of  conviction  that 
tlie  writer  records  the  fact  that  the  subject  of  our  present  sketch 
woukl  be  what  he  is,  and  achieve  what  he  will,  were  his 
ancestry  unknown  to  fame. 

George  R.  Brown  was  born  at  Roland  Springs,  Bartow 
county,  Georgia,  November  13,  1861.  He  received  first  a 
primary  school  course  at  Canton,  Cherokee  county,  the  home 
of  his  father.  Judge  James  R.  Brown,  and  entered  the  North 
Georgia  Agricultural  College,  at  Dahlonega,  in  1878.  After  a 
year  here  he  entered  the  University  at  Athens,  Georgia,  in 
1879,  and,  keeping  up  his  studies  during  the  full  course  in  that 
institution,  graduated  in  the  famous  class  of  1881. 

Leaving  college  with  the  honors  of  that  alma  mater,  he  entered 
upon  the  study  of  law  in  the  office  of  his  father,  completed  the 
course,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  November  14,  1882,  just 
one  day  after  reaching  his  majority.  Five  days  afterward, 
t3-wit,  November  19,  1882,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Fannie 
McAfee,  of  Canton,  Georgia,  thus  acquiring  his  profession  and 
a  wife  in  one  and  the  same  week,  and  fitting  himself  to  meet 
and  grapple  with  the  problems  of  life.  Two  children  are  the 
fruits  of  the  union. 

Entering  at  once  upon  the  practice  of  his  profession,  Mr. 
Brown  devoted  himself  with  unflagging  energy  to  that  jealous 
mistress,  the  law,  until  188(i,  when,  at  the  solicitation  of  his 
fellow-citizens,  he  became  a  candidate  for  the  Senate.  After  a 
warm  primary  canvass,  his  opponents  all  having  withdrawn 
and  left  him  a  clear  field,  it  was  discovered  that  at  the  date 
when  the  election  would  take  place  he  would  be  too  young,  by 
ten  days,  to  be  eligible  to  a  Senatorial  seat.  Upon  the  an- 
nouncement of  this  fact  his  fellow-citizens  of  his  own  county 
sent  him  as  their  representative  in  the  lower  House. 

In  that  body  he  has  made  a  quiet,  undemonstrative,  but 
industrious  and  energetic  member.  Gifted  with  genius,  the 
polish  and  suaviter  in  modo  of  the  scholarly  gentleman,  and  the 
charm  and  grace  of  the  orator,  he  is  yet  modest  and  retiring  in 


176  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

his  nature,  and  does  not  court  notoriety  by  artificial  methods. 
These  qualities,  supplemented  by  a  classical  education  and  a 
wide  and  comprehensive  reading,  give  him  a  mental  equipment 
equalled  by  few  men  of  his  age  in  the  State.  Should  he  live  to 
work  out  his  destiny  he  will  be  heard  from  in  the  coming 
years. 


REPRESENTA  TIVE  GEOR  GIANS. 


HON.  AUGUSTUS  M.  FOUTE, 

REPRESENTATIVE    FROM    THE    COUNTY    OF    F.ARTOW 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  179 


HON.  AUGUSTUS  M.  FOUTE, 

REPRESENTATIVE    FROM    THE    COUNTY    OF    BARTOW. 


Augustus  M.  Foute  was  born  in  Roane  county,  East  Ten- 
nessee, November  16,  1838,  and  is  the  sixth  child  of  William 
L.  Foute,  a  native  of  Dandridge,  Jeflterson  county,  Tennessee, 
an  industrious  farmer,  staunch  Democrat  and  exemplary  mem- 
ber of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  a  combination  that  never  fails 
to  produce  a  good  citizen.  His  mother's  maiden  name  was 
Martha  L.  George,  a  daughter  of  Samuel  George,  of  Louis- 
ville, Blount  county,  Tennessee. 

Mr.  Foute  was  reared  on  his  father's  farm,  received  a  com- 
mon school  education,  and  was  graduated  at  Ewings- Jefferson 
C'Ollege.  After  completing  his  course  he  entered  upon  mercan- 
tile pursuits,  but  gave  them  up  to  enter  the  army,  and  was 
mustered  in  on  Independence  Day,  July  4,  1861,  and  went 
through  the  four  years  of  the  war  between  the  States.  From  a 
private  in  the  ranks  he  was  promoted  to  the  Adjutancy  of  the 
Twenty-sixth  Tennessee  Regiment,  and  left  his  right  arm  on 
the  bloody  field  of  Kennesaw  Mountain,  July  22,  1864. 

Unable  at  the  close  of  the  war  to  follow  manual  labor,  he 
taught  school  while  preparing  himself  for  the  bar,  to  which  he 
was  admitted  in  Fulton  Superior  Court  in  April,  1868.  He  at 
once  commenced  the  practice  of  his  profession  at  Cartersville, 
Bartow  county,  which  has  since  been  his  home. 

Mr.  Foute  lias  filled  numerous  important  county  offices  in 
his  county,  and  in  1886  was  elected  one  of  the  Representatives 
from  his  county  to  the  lower  House  of  the  General  Assembl}'^, 
his  colleague  being  Hon.  William  H.  Felton,  formerly  a  mem- 


180  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

ber  of  Congress  from  the  Seventh  District.  In  the  House  Mr. 
FouTE  has  made  an  industrious,  painstaking  legislator,  and  in 
committees  and  on  the  floor  has  had  an  eye  single  to  the  wel- 
fare of  the  people,  not  only  of  his  own  county  or  section,  but 
the  entire  State. 

In  1875  Mr.  Foute  was  married  to  Miss  Laura  Anderson,  a 
daughter  of  Mr.  O.  D,  Anderson,  now  a  prosperous  merchant 
of  Apopka  City,  Florida.  They  have  an  interesting  family  of 
three  daughters  and  one  son,  and  their  home  in  the  beautiful 
little  city  of  Marietta  is  a  gem,  in  its  way,  in  which  happiness 
and  comfort  reign  supreme. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  181 


GEN.  E.  P.  ALEXANDER, 

CAPITOL    COMMISSIONER. 


Gen.  E.  P.  Alexander  was  born  in  the  year  1835,  at  Wash- 
ington, Georgia.  At  the  age  of  twenty-two  he  graduated  at 
West  Point,  and  it  was  there  that  he  learned  to  such  perfection 
the  science  of  warfare  by  which  he  became  so  distinguished  as 
an  artillery  officer  in  the  late  war.  He  served  in  the  United 
States  Engineer  Corps  as  instructor  in  engineering  at  West 
Point,  on  the  Utah  expedition,  and  in  California  and  Washing- 
ton Territory  until  1861,  when  he  entered  the  Confederate  army 
as  Captain  of  Engineers,  and  served  on  the  staifs  of  Gens. 
Beauregard,  Joseph  E.  Johnston  and  Lee  until  November, 
1862,  and  as  Colonel  of  Artillery  until  February,  1864,  being 
then  promoted  to  the  rank  of  Brigadier  General  of  Artiltery  in 
Longstreet's  corps  until  the  surrender  at  Appomattox  in  1865. 

He  served  with  great  distinction  throughout  the  war,  and 
was  rapidly  promoted  for  gallant  service  rendered  in  the  thick- 
est of  many  a  hot-fought  and  bloody  field.  The  same  dis- 
tingu^ished  abilities  which  he  so  signally  displayed  upon  the 
battlefield  have  marked  his  career  in  the  quieter  but  no  less 
victorious  fields  of  civic  life.  The  exercise  of  his  commanding 
abilities  has  been  mostly  confined  to  extensive  railway  enter- 
prises and  their  management,  as  a  brief  review  of  his  employ- 
ment since  the  war  will  show. 

In  1866  he  was  elected  to  the  chair  of  mathematics  and  engi- 
neering in  the  University  of  South  Carolina,  and  filled  that 
position  until  1869,  when  he  resigned,  and  a  year  later  became 
President  of  the  Columbia  Cotton  Seed  Oil  Mill. 


182  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

In  1871  he  was  elected  Superintendent  of  the  Charleston, 
Columbia  and  Augusta  Railroad, 

In  1872  he  was  elected  President  of  the  Savannah  and  Mem- 
phis Railroad. 

From  1875  to  1878  he  was  General  Manager  of  the  Western 
Railroad  of  Alabama. 

From  1878  to  1880  he  was  President  of  the  Georgia  Railroad 
and  Banking  Company. 

From  1880  to  1882  he  was  Vice  President  of  the  Louisville 
and  Nashville  Railroad. 

In  1887  he  was  elected  President  of  the  Central  Railroad  of 
Georgia. 

He  is  a  member,  by  appointment,  of  the  United  States  Com- 
mission on  Pacific  Railroads. 

Gen.  Alexander  is  a  type  of  the  true  Georgia  gentleman, 
and  is  the  personal  friend  of  almost  every  public  man  in  the 
State.  His  services  as  a  Commissioner  have  been  important, 
and  his  opinions  upon  all  matters  which  come  before  the  Board 
are  the  outcome  of  the  most  thoughtful  investigation. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  183 


HON.  A.  L.  MILLER, 

CAPITOL    COMMISSIONER. 


Hon.  A.  L.  Miller  was  born  in  Richmond  county,  Georgia, 
near  Augusta,  on  the  sixth  day  of  November,  1848.  The 
greater  portion  of  his  youth  was  spent  in  the  vicinity  of  Au- 
gusta and  Charleston,  in  both  of  which  cities  some  of  the  most 
distinguished  citizens  are  his  relatives.  He  graduated  at  the 
South  Carolina  College  in  1869.  On  attaining  his  majority  he 
removed  to  Houston  county,  where  he  completed  his  law 
studies,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Perry,  in  1871.  In 
1872  he  located  in  Fort  Valley,  where  he  engaged  in  the  suc- 
cessful practice  of  law.  Col.  Miller  represented  Houston 
county  in  every  term  of  the  Legislature  from  1876  until  1882, 
when  he  declined  a  re-election. 

He  is  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  brilliant  and  clear-headed 
men  in  Georgia,  and  occupies  a  high  place  among  the  dis- 
tinguished men  of  the  State.  He  is  of  the  average  height,  and 
is  finely  proportioned.  He  has  a  rather  fair  complexion,  dark 
hair  and  eyes,  and  he  usually  wears  a  small  moustache  and 
goatee.  There  are  few  handsomer  men  than  Col.  Miller  to  be 
found  in  Georgia.  He  has  a  more  than  ordinarilj^  distinguished 
appearance,  and  in  a  body  of  men  would  naturally  attract  the 
eyes  of  an  observer.  He  has  always  been  an  earnest  Demo- 
crat, and  the  Democracy  of  his  county  and  State  have  always 
found  in  him  a  faithful  friend,  and  earnest  advocate  of  its 
principles  and  a  wise  counselor  in  all  its  (!onditions.  Much  of 
his  life  lias  been  devoted  to  hard  study,  and  he  is  one  of  the 
l)est  informed  men  on  law.  State  history,  State  and  national 
18 


18 J^  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

politics  and  on  general  topics  to  be  found  in  Georgia.  He  is 
modest  and  retiring  in  his  manner,  and,  in  the  common  ac- 
ceptation of  the  term,  has  never  "  pushed "  himself,  but  has 
risen  to  his  present  enviable  position  as  a  public  man  wholly 
and  entirely  on  account  of  his  merits  and  high  personal  quali- 
fications. 

He  was  married  October  26,  1876,  to  Miss  Katie  D.  Hurt,  a 
daughter  of  Mr.  Joel  Hurt,  of  Edgewood,  near  Atlanta.  He 
has  three  children,  who  brighten  his  plantation  home  near 
Perry,  Georgia. 

He  was  selected  as  a  Capitol  Commissioner  on  account  of  his 
peculiar  fitness  for  the  place.  He  made  considerable  reputa- 
tion as  a  member  of  the  Finance  Committee  of  the  House  of 
Representatives,  and  rendered,  during  his  entire  service  as  a 
legislator,  eminent  services  as  a  member  of  this  committee. 
Such  a  man  deserved  appointment  on  the  Commission  of  which 
he  is  a  valuable  member.  His  friends  predict  for  him  a  still 
more  brilliant  connection  with  the  future  history  of  the  State. 


186 


REPRESENTA  TIVE  GEOR GIANS. 


HON.  HIRAM  WARNER  HILL, 

REPRESENTATIVE    FROM    THE    COUNTY    OF    MERIWETHER, 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  187 


HON.  HIPvAM  WARNER  HILL, 

REPRESENTATIVE    FROM    THE    COUNTY    OF    MERIWETHER. 


Hon.  Hiram  Warner  Hill,  of  Greenville,  Meriwether 
county,  was  born  July  18,  1858,  near  Greenville.  He  is  the 
second  of  nine  children  of  Mr.  A.  F.  Hill,  a  successful  planter 
and  prominent  citizen  of  the  county.  His  mother  was  the 
daughter  of  the  late  Hon.  Hiram  Warner,  for  many  years 
Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Georgia,  for  whom  the 
subject  of  this  sketch  was  named. 

The  boyhood  days  of  Mr.  Hill  were  spent  on  his  father's 
farm  in  the  emplojanents  incident  to  the  life  of  a  farmer's  boy. 
Part  of  the  time  he  attended  the  common  schools  of  the  coun- 
tiy.  In  1877  he  entered  Emory  College,  Oxford,  Georgia,  and 
remained  until  1879,  when  he  left  to  take  charge  of  a  flourish- 
ing school  near  Liberty  Hill,  Heard  county.  Having  deter- 
mined, however,  to  make  the  law  his  profession,  he  gave  up  this 
position  at  the  instance  of  his  grandfather,  Judge  AVarner,  and 
entered  the  law  school  of  Harvard  University,  which  he 
attended  1880-81,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  November 
of  the  latter  year.  He  entered  upon  the  practice  of  his  profes- 
sion at  Greenville,  and  has  since  devoted  himself  to  it  with 
gratifying  success. 

Mr.  Hill  was  a  member  of  the  State  Democratic  Convention 
which  nominated  Hon.  Alexander  H.  Stephens  for  Governor, 
and  again  when  Hon.  Henry  D.  McDaniel  was  nominated. 
He  takes  an  active  and  prominent  interest  in  the  local  politics 
of  his  county.  In  1880  he  was  elected  to  the  lower  House  of 
the  General  Assembly  over  several  popular  and  worthy  com- 


188  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

petitors.  Owing  to  a  long  and  severe  illness  he  was  not  present 
in  the  sessions  of  the  last  House  except  for  a  few  days  when 
the  body  first  met. 

Mr.  Hill  was  married  September  24,  1884,  to  Miss  Lena 
Harris,  the  youngest  daughter  of  Hon.  Henry  R.  Harris, 
then  a  member  of  Congress  from  the  Fourth  Georgia  District, 
but  now  Third  Assistant  Postmaster  General  of  the  United 
States.  Miss  Harris  was  a  charming  and  accomplished  lady, 
and  now  blesses  and  brightens  the  home  of  the  talented  young 
Representative  from  Meriwether. 


-^-t-i^- 


190 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.  WILLIAM  YATES  ATKINSON, 


REPRESENTATIVE    FROM    THE    COUNTY    OF    COWETA. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  191 


HON.  WILLIAM  YATES  ATKINSON, 

REPRESENTATIVE    FROM    THE    t'OUNTY    OF    COWETA. 


AViLLiAM  Yates  Atkinson,  son  of  John  Pepper  Atkinson 
and  Theodora  Phelps  Atkinson,  was  borii  at  Oakland,  Meri- 
wether county,  Georgia,  November  11,  1854,  the  year  of  the 
family's  removal  from  A'^irginia,  the  home  of  his  ancestors  since 
before  the  Revolutionary  war.  His  great-grandfather,  John 
Atkinson,  came  from  Ireland.  He  is  of  Scotch  and  Irish 
descent. 

Mr.  Atkinson  is  one  of  four  brothers,  T.  A.  Atkinson  a  law- 
3'er  and  ex-representative  from  Meriwether  county,  T.  E. 
Atkinson,  and  R,  J.  Atkinson,  prominent  and  successful  busi- 
ness men,  being  the  other  three.  In  1880  Mr.  Atkinson  was 
married  to  Miss  Susie  Cobb  Milton,  a  granddaughter  of  Ex- 
Governor  John  Milton  of  Florida,  and  a  daughter  of  Hon. 
AV.  H.  Milton,  a  distinguished  lawyer  of  that  State.  Mr. 
Atkinson  has  three  children,  John  Pepper,  Lucy  Belle,  and 
William  Yates,  Jr. 

Mr.  Atkinson  completed  his  education  at  the  University  of 
Georgia  where  he  graduatcid  in  1877,  and  in  1878  located  in 
Newnan,  Coweta  county,  Georgia,  and  entered  the  practice  of 
law.  Within  six  months  after  commencing  practice  Mr.  At- 
kinson was  ai)pointed  by  the  Governor  C-ounty  Solicitor.  His 
ability,  energy  and  eminent  success  in  this  office  attracted  pub- 
lic attention  and  promptly  brought  him  a  large  and  lucrative 
practice.  He  is  a  talented  public  speaker,  strong  advocate,  and 
a  well  read  successful  lawyer.     He  is  a  man  of  strong  personal 


192  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

attachments,  and  in  politics,  preferring  to  be  Warwick  to  King, 
has  devoted  most  of  his  efforts  to  the  advancement  of  his 
friends. 

The  present  is  the  first  office  he  ever  asked  of  the  people, 
and  in  the  nominating  convention  composed  of  one  hundred 
and  thirty-three  delegates,  he  received  the  votes  of  one  hun- 
dred and  nine  on  the  first  ballot. 

In  the  present  House  Mr.  Atkinson  is  Chairman  of  Com- 
mittee on  Internal  Improvements,  and  member  of  those  on 
General  Judiciary,  Banks  and  Banking,  and  Privileges  and 
Elections,,  on  all  of  which  he  has  done  splendid  work.  He 
takes  an  active  part  in  the  debates  in  the  House,  is  a  vigorous 
thinker,  and  a  potent  factor  in  shaping  legislation.  He  is 
lucid,  logical  and  eloquent,  generally  deliberative,  but  at  times 
as  nervous  in  thought  and  impetuous  in  delivery  as  Curran. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  193 


HON.  PHILIP  COOK, 

CAPITOL    COMMISSIONEK. 


Among  the  best  and  truest,  as  well  as  among  the  bravest  men 
in  Georgia,  is  General  Philip  Cook,  the  "old  war-horse''  of 
Sumter.  He  is  the  senior  member  of  the  Commission,  and  his 
long  experience  in  public  affairs  peculiarly  fit  him  for  the  posi- 
tion. 

General  Cook  was  born  at  his  father's  plantation,  in  Twiggs 
countj'^,  Georgia,  twelve  miles  below  Macon,  in  the  year  1817. 

His  father.  Major  Cook,  was  an  officer  in  Eighth  United 
States  Infantry,  and  was  stationed  for  a  long  while  at  Fort 
Hawkins,  near  Macon,  in  the  year  1812,  and  Major  General 
Twiggs,  who  at  the  beginning  of  the  late  war  was  the  oldest 
officer  in  the  Federal  army,  was  a  young  captain  in  Major 
Cook's  regiment  at  that  time. 

The  greater  portion  of  the  early  years  of  General  Cook's  life 
was  spent  on  a  farm,  but  at  the  age  of  sixteen  was  sent  to  the 
University  of  Virginia,  where  he  devoted  himself  to  his  studies, 
chief  among  which  was  that  of  law. 

After  spending  four  years  at  the  university  he  returned  home 
on  account  of  the  death  of  his  father. 

In  1840  he  commenced  the  practice  of  law  in  Forsj'tli,  having 
as  his  partner  Colonel  Zack  Harmon,  a  distinguished  lawyer  of 
that  period.  After  three  years  of  successful  practice  in  his  pro- 
fession, he  left  Forsyth  and  purchased  a  farm  in  Sumter  county, 
near  Americus. 

Shortly  after  his  removal  to  Americus  he  was  elected  to 
represent  Sumter  county  in  the  Senate.     At  that  time  each 


IH  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

county  in  the  State  had  its  own  Senator,  and  Gen.  Cook  voted 
to  have  the  number  of  senatorial  districts  reduced — -first  to  33 
and  then  to  44.  Gen.  Lawton  was  a  member  of  the  Senate  at 
that  time,  and  he  and  Gen.  Cook  are  supposed  to  be  the  only 
survivors  of  that  Senate. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  war  General  Cook  belonged  to  a  vol- 
unteer military  company  in  Macon  county.  He  entered  the 
Confederate  service  with  his  company  in  1861,  and  was  mus- 
tered in  by  Senator  Joseph  E.  Brown  and  Col.  Jack  Jones,  at 
Augusta.  There  were  about  twenty  companies  of  soldiers  in 
Augusta  at  the  time  and  they  were  organized  into  the  Third 
Georgia  regiment,  under  command  of  Col.  Eanse  Wright,  and 
the  Fourth  Georgia  regiment  under  Col.  Dole.  General  Cook's 
compau}^  was  assigned  to  the  Fourth  Georgia  regiment,  which 
went  at  once  to  Norfolk. 

After  the  company  had  been  in  the  service  a  short  while 
General  Cook  was  appointed  Adjutant  of  his  regiment.  He 
made  a  good  soldier,  and  after  the  seven  days'  battle  around 
Richmond  he  was,  upon  the  recommendation  of  all  except  one 
officer  in  the  regiment,  appointed  to  the  office  of  Lieutenant 
Colonel.  This  was  done  in  recognition  of  his  personal  bravery 
displayed  upon  the  battlefield.  It  will  be  observed  that  he  was 
promoted  from  the  position  of  Adjutant  to  that  of  Lieutenant  Col- 
onel, a  matter  wliich  is  regarded  as  quite  a  distinguished  honor. 
After  the  promotion  of  Col.  Doles,  General  Cook  was  made 
Colonel  of  the  regiment,  and  when  Col.  Doles,  then  Gen.  Doles, 
was  killed  at  Manassas,  General  Cook  was,  upon  the  endorse- 
ment of  Generals  Early,  Rhodes  and  others,  promoted  to  the 
position  of  Brigadier  General.  He  took  part  in  all  the  principal 
battles  engaged  in  by  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia.  At  Mal- 
vern Hill  he  was  severely  wounded  in  the  body.  At  Chancel- 
lorsville  he  was  wounded  in  the  leg,  and  all  the  physicians 
(with  the  exception  of  Dr.  Philpot,  of  Talbot  county,  and  Dr. 
Etheridge,  of  Putnam,)  advised  amputation.  The  two  phy- 
sicians nientioned,  however,  thought  they  could  save  the  limb. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  195 

and  his  case  was  turned  over  to  them,  and  they  were  successful 
not  onlj"  m  saving  the  General's  life,  but  in  causing  the  wound 
ito  heal  and  amputation  was  not  necessarj'.  He  was  also 
wounded  at  Petersburg,  and  was  left  on  the  field  and  captured 
by  the  enemy.  He  was  then  sent  to  prison,  where  with  other 
officers  he  was  detained  until  the  last  day  of  Jul}',  1865,  when 
he  was  paroled. 

Upon  his  return  home  he  was  elected  to  the  constitutional 
convention  of  1865,  and  voted  for  the  constitution  adopted  by 
that  convention. 

He  was  elected  to  represent  the  Third  Congressional  District 
in  the  -l:2d  Congi-ess,  but  was  denied  the  right  to  his  seat  under 
the  then  existing  constitution  of  the  United  States.  His  politi- 
cal disabilities,  however,  were  removed  by  the  general  amnesty 
act  of  1872,  and  he  was  elected  to  and  took  his  seat  in  the  43d 
Congress.  He  afterwards  served  in  the  44th,  45th,  46th  and 
47th  Congresses. 

In  1859  the  death  of  his  estimable  wife  occurred,  and  he 
never  married  again.  He  has  two  children,  the  oldest  of  whom 
is  Mrs.  Lucy  Peel,  of  Atlanta.  The  youngest  child  is  a  noble 
son,  who  bears  his  distinguished  father's  name.  He  also 
resides  in  Atlanta.  • 

General  Cook's  war  record  is  one  of  whicli  any  man  in  either 
army  might  well  be  proud.  On  going  into  battle  he  was  always 
at  the  head  of  his  command,  and  his  men  were  read}'  to  foll(jw 
wherever  he  led  the  way.  He  had  several  horses  killed 
beneath  him,  and  when  in  close  quarters  he  often  used  his 
revolvers  with  good  effect. 

He  occupies  a  position  among  the  most  highly  esteemed  citi- 
zens of  Georgia,  and  his  place  in  the  Capitol  Commission  could 
not  have  been  filled  by  one  more  patriotic  and  painstaking. 


196  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.  THOMAS  M.  NORWOOD, 

MEMBER    OF    CONGRESS    FROM    THE    FIRST    DISTRICT. 


The  subject  of  this  sketch,  Hon.  Thomas  M.  Norwood,  of 
Savannah,  is  one  of  the  best  known  men  in  Georgia.  For 
many  years  one  of  the  foremost  members  of  the  bar  of  a  State 
distinguished  for  its  judiciary  and  the  eminent  talents  of  its 
legal  profession,  he  has  filled  high  trusts  with  such  conspicuous 
efficiency  and  ability  as  to  mark  him  one  of  the  representative 
citizens,  lawyers  and  politicians  of  the  Empire  State  of  the 
South.  ^ 

Thomas  M.  Norwood,  at  present  a  member  of  Congress  fi'om 
the  First  District,  was  born  in  Talbot  county,  Georgia,  April 
26,  1830.  He  received  an  academic  education  at  Culloden, 
Monroe  county,  and  subsequently  graduated,  at  the  age  of 
twenty,  at  Emory  College,  Oxford,  Georgia.  Having  studied 
law,  he  was  admitted  to  practice  upon  attaining  his  majority, 
in  1852,  and  in  March  of  that  year  removed  to  Savannah, 
where  he  has  since  resided  and  practiced  his  profession. 

In  1861  Mr.  Norwood  was  elected  to  the  Legislature,  the 
first  political  office  held  by  him,  and  served  a  term  of  two 
years.  He  took  an  active  part  after  the  war  in  every  election 
for  President,  and  in  1868  and  1872  and  1876  made  speeches 
at  many  places  throughout  Georgia.  In  November,  1871,  he 
was  elected  by  the  General  Assemblj^  of  Georgia  United  States  | 
Senator  for  the  term  of  six  years.  His  seat  was  contested  by 
Foster  Blodgett,  in  which  contest  he  was  successful,  and  was 
awarded  his  seat  December  19,  1871,  and  served  out  liis  term, 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  197 

which  expired  March  3, 1877.  In  1874  he  delivered  his  famous 
civil  rights  speech,  which  brought  him  a  national  reputation. 

At  the  end  of  his  term  he  was  defeated  for  re-election,  after 
a  long  and  spirited  contest  before  the  Legislature,  by  Hon. 
Benjamin  H.  Hill,  and  remained  in  retirement  until  1880, 
when,  the  State  Democratic  Convention  having  adjourned 
without  making  a  nomination,  he  became  a  candidate  against 
Gov.  Colquitt.  The  contest  was  an  exceedingly  exciting  one, 
and  Gov.  Colquitt  was  re-elected. 

In  1884  Mr.  Norwood  was  nominated  for  Congress  from  the 
First  District,  and  defeated  Pleasant,  Republican,  by  a  ma- 
jority' of  nearly  5,000.  In  the  House  he  has  taken  high  rank, 
and  during  the  Forty -ninth  Congress  made  a  speech  in  reply  to 
an  attack  upon  the  South  by  Mr.  Henderson,  of  Iowa,  that  was 
pronounced  by  many  the  equal  of  his  famous  speech  above 
alluded  to.  In  debate  he  is  humorous,  sarcastic  and  eloquent. 
Personally  he  is  gifted  with  many  social  traits  that  win  and 
hold  strong  friends.  He  has  been  re-elected  to  the  Fiftieth 
Congress  without  opposition. 


198  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANJS. 


HON.  W.  H.  HARRISON, 

ASSISTANT    SECRETARY    EXECUTIVE    DEPARTMENT. 


W.  H.  Harrison  is  the  oldest  son  of  Burwell  R.  Harrison, 
deceased,  and  was  born  and  raised  in  Lumpkin,  Stewart  county, 
Georgia.  In  1858,  at  the  age  of  fifteen,  he  was  appointed  to 
the  United  States  Naval  Academy,  by  tlie  late  Judge  Martin 
J.  Crawford,  who  was  at  that  time  a  member  of  Congress 
from  the  then  Second  District.  He  remained  at  Annapolis  un- 
til March,  1860,  when  he  resigned  on  account  of  the  death  of 
his  father,  and  returned  home  and  went  into  the  business  of 
keeping  books  for  Boynton  &  Chamberlin,  merchants,  then 
located  at  Lumpkin.  When  the  war  came  on  young  Harrison 
raised  a  company  of  boys  and  entered  the  service  as  First 
Lieutenant  of  Company  E,  Thirty-first  Georgia  Regiment.  He 
was  promoted  to  the  Captainc^^,  and  served  under  Col.  Clement 
A.  Evans,  in  Lawton's  (afterwards  Gordon's)  brigade.  He 
served  and  took  part  in  all  the  campaigns  in  Virginia  fi-om  the 
battle  of  Coal  Harbor,  June  27,  1SG2,  to  that  of  Monacaey, 
Maryland,  July  9,  1864,  where  he  was  wounded  in  the  side  and 
left  in  the  hospital  at  Frederick,  Maryland.  Subsequently  he 
was  carried  to  Fort  McHenry,  thence  to  Fort  Delaware.  He 
remained  a  prisoner  of  war  until  June  19,  1865,  when  he  was 
paroled  and  sent  home.  Soon  after  his  return  home  he  was 
elected  Clerk  of  Stewart  Superior  Court,  and  served  one  term. 
In  1869  he  was  admitted  to  the  practice  of  law,  and  opened  an 
office  at  his  old  home.  He  was  sent  to  the  Legislature  in  1878, 
and  during  the  sessions  of  1878-9  represented  his  constituents 
faitlifully,  serving  on  the  Judiciary,  Local  and  Special  Bills,  and 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  199 

Printing  Committees ;  also,  as  chairman  of  the  special  com- 
mittee to  investigate  the  public  printing. 

During  the  Forty-sixth  Congress  Mr.  Harrison  served  as 
Clerk  of  the  Committee  on  Public  Buildings  and  Grounds,  of 
which  Commissioner  Philip  Cook  was  chairman.  He  served 
the  committee  in  a  most  acceptable  manner,  and  l)rought  with 
him  on  his  return  to  Geoi-gia  the  plaudits  of  those  with  whom 
he  had  come  in  contact. 

In  1880-81  and  in  1882  he  was  Assistant  Clerk  of  the  House 
of  Representatives,  under  Col.  Mark  Hardin,  and  performed 
his  duties  well.  When  Gov.  McDaniel  was  made  Governor  he 
appointed  Mr.  Harrison  Clerk  of  the  Executive  Department, 
which  position  he  now  fills,  performing  the  duties  of  minute 
and  warrant  clerk.  He  is  also  Secretary  of  the  Capitol  Com- 
mission, in  which  position  he  has  rendered  valuable  service  to 
the  Commission  and  the  State. 

Capt.  Harrison  is  fortj-two  years  old,  five  feet  eight  inches 
high,  weighs  158  pounds,  and  has  dark  hair  and  eyes.  He  was 
married  in  1869  to  Miss  Clara  Rockwell,  of  Lumpkin,  who 
presides  over  his  household,  "  doubling  his  joys  and  his  cares 
dividing." 

He  is  the  father  of  three  bright  boys,  aged  fifteen,  thirteen 
and  seven  years,  and  one  daughter  aged  ten. 

From  1872  to  1882  Capt.  Harrison  was  proprietor  and  editor 
of  the  Lumpkin  Indejiendent,  and  in  every  campaign  battled 
manfully  for  the  Democracy  and  her  nominees. 

Since  he  has  been  acting  in  the  capacity  of  Secretary  of  the 
Commission  he  has  performed  his  duties  in  a  most  thorough 
and  satisfactory  manner.  The  compilation  and  .publication  in 
book  form  of  the  action  of  the  Commission  during  the  first  year 
of  its  existence  was  a  laborious  work,  requiring  careful  thought 
and  exactneas.  He  performed  it  in  a  most  creditable  manner, 
and  with  the  method  and  regular  order  which  seems  to  be  a 
part  of  his  life. 

14 


200 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


He  is  well  educated,  and  is  accused  of  having  upon  the  tip 
of  his  tongue  as  many  statistics  as  are  usually  contained  in  the 
average  census  report.  Being  a  most  admirable  conversation- 
alist, and  full  of  anecdotes,  he  is  a  most  agreeable  companion, 
and  enjoys  the  friendship  and  high  esteem  of  a  large  number 
of  friends,  not  only  in  Atlanta,  but  among  the  public  men  of 
the  State,  with  the  personnel  of  which  no  man  is  more  familiar 
than  he.  In  the  discharge  of  his  official  duties  he  is  polite  and 
accommodating,  often  going  out  of  his  way  to  oblige  those  with 
whom  he  comes  in  business  contact.  He  is  a  favorite  with  all 
the  State  House  officials  and  department  clerks.  When  Gov. 
Gordon  came  into  office  he  retained  Capt.  Harrison,  and  the 
public  service  has  no  more  capable  or  efficient  officer  than  the 
subject  of  this  sketch. 


202 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.  P.  J.  FRANKLIN, 

REPRESENTATIVE  FROM  THE  COUNTY  OF  THOMAS. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  203 


HON.  P.  J.  FRANKLIN, 

REPRESENTATIVE    FROM    THE    COUNTY    OF    THOMAS. 


It  is  one  of  the  proudest  boasts  of  the  American  system  of 
government  that  the  highest  station  is  open  to  tlie  humblest 
citizen.  Here,  as  uowhere  else  in  the  world,  is  proven  the 
truth  of  the  lines  : 

"It  is  not  rank,  or  birth,  or  state, 
But  noble  deeds  that  make  men  great." 

No  finer  illustration  of  the  possibilities  of  American  citizen- 
ship can  be  adduced  than  that  of  men,  who,  coming  up  from 
the  lowest  walks  of  life,  fi-om  the  forge,  and  the  plow,  and  the 
mechanics'  bench,  rise  by  dint  of  labor,  and  toil,  and  energy,  to 
occupy  the  highest  positions  and  wear  the  highest  honors  of  an 
appreciative  people. 

The  subject  of  the  present  sketch  is  a  case  directly  in  point. 
Hon.  Parnell  James  Franklin  was  born  in  Thomas  count}-, 
Georgia,  in  1858.  His  father  was  a  farmer,  poor  in  this  world's 
goods,  and  as  soon  as  he  was  large  enough  young  Franklin 
was  put  at  work  on  the  farm  and  went  through  all  the  labor 
and  drudgery  incident  to  such  a  life.  Under  the  circumstances 
of  course  educational  advantages  were  few,  and  the  boy,  thirst- 
ing for  knowledge  and  anxious  to  acquire  it  pored  over  his 
l)Ooks  l\y  night,  and  at  such  other  times  as  he  could  snatch  "from 
the  monotony  of  his  daily  employments  on  the  farm.  Finally 
a  way  was  opened  and  he  was  sent  to  school  for  a  while  at 
Thomasville  and  took  a  course  at  the  South  Georgia  College. 


204  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

He  was  studious,  thoughtful  and  fired  with  an  honorable  ambi- 
tion to  be  something  better  than  the  common  herd,  and  hence 
made  the  most  of  his  meagre  educational  opportunities. 

At  the  close  of  his  school  days  Mr,  Franklin  taught  school 
for  a  year,  devoted  some  little  time  to  mercantile  pursuits,  but 
having  fixed  his  eye  on  the  bar  as  the  goal  of  his  ambition,  used 
other  employments  merely  as  means  to  an  end  and  finally 
found  himself  admitted  to  the  bar  and  his  life-work  fairly  open- 
ing out  before  him.  He  has  devoted  himself  to  his  profession 
with  that  ability,  energy  and  tenacity  that  compels  success,  and 
has  a  large,  lucrative  and  constantly  growing  practice,  by  which 
he  has  amassed  a  reasonable  share  of  this  world's  goods  and  is 
now  in  easy  circumstances.  He  had  strong  opposition  for  his 
present  seat,  but  was  elected  by  a  handsome  majority. 

In  the  House  Mr.  Franklin  has  been  noted  for  his  strict 
attention  to  every  detail  of  legislation,  nothing  escaping  his 
watchful  eye,  and  the  careful  and  painstaking  manmer  in  which 
he  performs  every  duty  to  which  he  is  assigned.  He  is  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Committees  on  Special  Judiciary,  Education,  Banks, 
and  Privileges  of  the  Floor.  At  least  three  of  these  are  busy 
Committees  and  the  duties  are  onerous.  Mr.  Franklin  never 
misses  a  meeting  and  whenever  he  speaks  it  is  at  once  appa- 
rent that  he  has  given  careful  study  to  the  subject  in  hand. 

He  was  appointed  chairman  of  the  special  committee  to 
devise  a  Savings'  Bank  system  for  the  State,  and  has  bestowed 
much  thought  and  labor  upon  the  question  and  hopes  to  pass 
through  tlie  present  Legislature  a  law  that  will  meet  all  de- 
mands of  the  case.  The  importance  of  a  practical  law  on  this 
subject  cannot  be  over  estimated. 

Mr.  Franklin  also  has  a  bill  pending  to  print  all  bills  in  the 
General  Assembly,  and  have  the  same  read  only  twice,  thus 
saving  much  time  and  a  heavy  expense  to  the  State.  It  is  in 
such  practical  common  sense  lines  as  these  that  he  finds  most 
congenial  fields  for  the  exercise  of  his  talents. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  205 

Personally  modest  and  unobtrusive,  Mr.  Franklin  is  yet  easy 
of  approach  and  social  and  genial  with  his  friends.  The  wi'iter 
has  had  the  pleasure  to  become  intimately  associated  with  him 
in  the  labors  of  the  committee  room  and  on  the  floor,  and  is 
gratified  to  be  able  to  thus  bear  testimonj^  to  the  modest  worth 
of  this  truly  self-made  man. 


206  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.  C.  J.  WELLBORN, 

JUDGE    SUPERIOR    COURTS,    NORTHEASTERN    CIRCUIT. 


C  J.  Wellborn,  Judge  of  the  Superior  Courts  of  the  North- 
eastern Circuit,  was  born  in  Union  county,  Georgia,  in  18.36. 
He  received  a  common  school  education.  In  1858  he  was 
appointed  State  Librarian  by  Hon.  Joseph  E.  Brow^n,  when 
that  gentleman  became  Governor.  He  read  law  while  occupy- 
ing this  position  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1859.  He  was 
commissioned  Captain  of  State  troops  by  Governor  Brown  and 
as  such  served  in  the  Confederate  army. 

In  1867  he  was  elected  Senator  from  the  Fortieth  District  as  a 
Democrat,  and  served  out  his  term  in  that  body.  In  1873  he 
was  appointed  by  Governor  James  M.  Smith  Solicitor  General 
of  the  Blue  Ridge  Circuit,  but  resigned  that  position  in  1874. 
In  1873-4  he  was  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Senate. 

Upon  tlie  creation  of  the  Northeastern  Judicial  Circuit  in 
1881  he  was  elected  Judge  and  held  that  position  until  1883, 
when  he  was  succeeded  by  Hon.  John  B.  Estes.  In  1886  he 
was  again  elected  Judge  for  a  term  of  four  years  commencing 
January  1st,  1887. 

On  the  bench  Judge  Wellborn  has  made  an  enviable  record 
as  a  patient,  painstaking,  fearless  and  upright  officer,  and  is  an 
ornament  to  the  judiciary  of  the  State. 


208 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.  PAUL  FAVER, 

SENATOR    FROM    THE    TWENTY-SIXTH    DISTRICT. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  209 


HON.  PAUL  FAVER, 

SENATOR    FROM    THE    TWENTY-SIXTH    DISTRICT. 


Paul  Faver,  son  of  Mr.  John  Faver  of  Fayette  county,  and 
]\[artha  a.  Faver,  formerly  Lumpkin,  and  the  present  Senator 
fi'om  the  Twenty-sixth  Georgia  District,  was  born  in  Oglethorpe 
county,  September  2,  1845. 

Few  men  in  the  Georgia  Legislature  have  made  more  friends 
than  Dr.  Faver.  Genial,  whole  souled,  generous  and  social, 
he  attracts  strangers  at  once,  and  an  acquaintance  once  begun 
ripens  by  reason  of  the  sterling  qualities  of  the  man  into  a 
lasting  friendship.  Consequently,  as  much  by  reason  of  this 
happ3^  faculty,  as  well  as  by  his  ability  and  earnestness  in 
whatever  he  undertook,  he  acquired  a  widespread  influence 
among  his  colleagues  both  in  the  Senate  and  House,  and  ])t'r- 
forms  valuable  service  not  only  for  his  immediate  constituents 
but  for  the  State  at  large. 

Notably  is  this  the  case  in  his  efforts  in  l)ehalf  of  the  unfor- 
tunate class  whose  misfortunes  make  them  inmates  of  the  State 
Lunatic  Asylum.  Dr.  Faver  is  Chairman  of  the  committee 
on  this  institution  and  has  been  zealous  and  untiring  in  his 
efforts  to  secure  such  legislation  as  will  in  his  judgment  pro- 
mote the  comfort  and  welfare  of  the  inmates.  Likewise  on  the 
Penitentiai-y  Committee  he  is  the  same  zealous  advocate  of  all 
reforms  that  tend  to  the  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  con- 
victs, and  the  carrying  out  in  a  just  and  humane  manner  the 
sentences  of  the  law. 

Dr.  Faver  was  educated  partially  at  the  Georgia  Military 
Institute,   at   Marietta,   and   left   that  institution  upon  Siier- 


210  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

man's  invasion  of  Georgia  and  served  with  distinction  as  Lieu- 
tenant of  Cadets  until  the  close  of  the  war.  Since  then  he  has 
read  medicine,  and  adopted  the  practice  of  that  profession  in 
which  he  has  achieved  a  pronounced  success.  He  has  never 
had  anything  to  do  with  politics  on  his  own  account  until  the 
canvass  for  his  present  seat  in  which  he  was  victorious  b}'  a 
handsome  majority.  Dr.  Faveb  is  as  yet  unmarried,  and  our 
artist  has  given  us  in  his  portrait  above  some  slight  idea  of 
how  handsome  a  man  he  is. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  211 


HON.  JOSEPH  R.  LAMAR, 

REPRESENTATIVE    FROM    THE    COUNTY    OF    RICHMOND. 


Joseph  Rucker  Lamar,  one  of  the  able  delegation  fi'om  the 
county  of  Richmond  in  the  present  House  of  Representatives,  a 
son  of  Rev.  Joseph  S.  Lamar,  was  born  in  Ruckersville,  Georgia, 
in  1857.  He  enjoyed  fine  educational  advantages,  having 
attended  the  State  LTniversity  at  Athens,  Bethany  College,  West 
Virginia,  and  AVashington  and  Lee  University.  Being  of  quiet 
habits  and  a  studious  mind  he  made  the  most  of  his  opportuni- 
ties, and  no  man  of  his  age  in  the  State  surpasses  him  in  the 
completeness  of  mental  equipment  for  the  duties  of  life. 

After  leaving  college,  having  determmed  to  make  the  law  his 
profession,  he  entered  upon  the  study,  mastered  it  and  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  1880.  He  formed  a  copartnership  with 
Hon.  H.  Clay  Foster,  of  Augusta,  whicli  has  continued  up  to 
the  present  time,  and  the  firm  is  one  of  the  most  popular,  suc- 
cessful and  prosjierous  in  that  city,  noted  for  the  exceptional 
brilliancy  and  ability  of  its  bar. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  in  politics  Mr.  Lamar  is  a  Demo- 
crat of  the  straightest  sect,  else  he  would  not  be  the  Representa- 
tive of  Richmond  county  in  the  General  Assembly.  Though 
never  having  before  held  office  Mr.  Lamar  has  been  always  a 
close  observer  of  political  affairs,  and  loyal  to  his  party  affilia- 
tions. 

Mr.  Lamar  was  elected  to  the  General  Assembly,  the  first 
officie  he  has  ever  held,  in  1880,  over  strenuous  opposition.  In 
the  House  and  on  the  Conunittees  on  Railroads,  (Jeneral  Judici- 
ary and  Banks,  he  at  once  took  liigh  rank  as  a  careful,  conser- 


9A2  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

vative  and  able  legislator.  Few  new  members  have  made  so 
many  friends  or  rendered  more  valuable  service  to  the  State. 
Personally  he  is  modest  and  unobtrusive,  almost  to  a  fault,  yet 
firm  and  unyielding  in  his  convictions  when  his  mind  is  made 
up.  He  is  courteous  and  polished  in  manner,  and  has  generous 
social  endowments  and  graces,  that  make  him  a  prime  favorite 
with  all  who  know  him. 

Mr.  Lamar  was  married  in  1879  to  Miss  Pendleton,  a 
daughter  of  Dr.  W.  K.  Pendleton,  the  President  of  Bethany 
College,  West  Virginia.  Two  manly  boys  are  the  fruit  of  the 
union.  Young,  talented  and  amply  equipped  for  the  battle  of 
life,  the  future  holds  forth  much  promise,  and  his  friends  predict 
for  him  a  career  of  honor  and  usefulness  in  the  service  of  his 
people. 


2U 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.  ROBP]RT  J.  POWELL, 

SENATOR    FROM    THE    TWENTY-SECOND    DISTRICT. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  215 


H(3N.  ROBERT  J.  POWELL, 

SENATOR    FROM    THE    TWENTY-SECOND    DISTRICT. 


Robert  J.  Powell,  of  Barnesville,  Pike  count}",  Senator 
from  the  Twenty-second  District,  is  one  of  the  notable  men  in 
that  body.  As  chairman  of  the  Finance  Committee  of  the 
Senate  he  has  been  charged  with  the  weightiest  responsibilities, 
and  has  met  and  discharged  them  in  a  manner  that  has  demon- 
strated the  wisdom  of  his  selection  for  the  place.  Every  item 
connected  with  the  finances  of  the  State  receives  his  most  care- 
ful scrutiny,  and  he  is  earnest  and  laborious  in  all  the  details 
of  his  duties  as  a  committeeman  and  Senator.  His  record  will 
compare  favorably  with  that  of  any  man  who  has  ever  held 
this  position  in  the  Georgia  Legislature. 

Mr.  Powell  was  born  in  Monroe  countj^,  on  a  farm  in  tlie 
countr3\  He  enjoyed  liberal  "old  field"  educational  advan- 
tages, which,  having  a  thirst  for  knowledge  and  a  naturally 
studious  mind,  he  improved  to  the  utmost.  Left  by  the  death 
of  his  father  charged  with  the  care  of  his  younger  brothers 
and  sisters,  just  as  he  was  at  the  threshold  of  manhood,  he  de- 
voted himself  to  them  with  jealous  care  until  they  were  edu- 
cated and  able  to  take  care  of  themselves.  He  employed  him- 
self in  teacliing  and  mercantile  pursuits.  Just  after  his  mar- 
riage to  the  beautiful  and  accomplished  Miss  Mitchell,  of 
Griffin,  the  war  cloud  gathered  over  the  land,  and,  leaving  his 
business  interests  and  his  young  wife,  Mr.  Poa^t^xl  went  to  the 
front,  at  his  country's  call.  He  served  with  the  artillery 
brancli  of  the  service  in  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland.  At  the 
battle  of  Chicamauga  he  was  severely  injured  by  his  horse  fall- 
15 


216  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

ing  on  him,  but,  refusing  to  go  to  the  rear,  was  assisted  to  his 
saddle,  and  led  the  charge  into  the  thickest  of  that  bloody  bat- 
tle. At  the  battle  of  Resaca  h*e  was  so  severely  injured  as  to 
necessitate  his  retirement  fi'om  the  field.  As  soon  as  he  could 
walk  without  crutches  he  again  reported  for  duty,  was  assigned 
to  a  Virginia  battalion,  and  served  until  the  close  of  the  war. 

Returning  home  broken  down  in  health,  and  fortune  gone, 
the  indomitable  spirit  of  the  man  would  not  down.  Wasting 
no  time  in  idle  repining  he  set  about  the  work  of  recuperation. 
Such  a  man  could  but  succeed,  and  he  has  prospered  as  such 
men  always  do.  To-day  he  is  comfortable  so  far  as  this  world's 
goods  goes,  is  President  of  the  Barnesville  Savings  Bank,  and  a 
recognized  authority  upon  financial  affairs  throughout  the 
State. 

Though  always  warmly  interested  in  political  affairs,  Mr. 
Powell  has  never  sought  preferment  for  himself.  His  fellow- 
citizens  twice  made  him  Mayor  of  Barnesville,  and  he  is  Presi- 
dent of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  Gordon  Institute,  President  of 
the  County  Board  of  Education,  and  has  held  many  other  posi- 
tions of  trust  in  church  and  State.  He  is  the  present  Treasurer 
of  the  Georgia  State  Agricultural  Society.  He  is  a  prominent 
Mason,  has  been  Grand  Director  of  the  Knights  of  Honor  of  the 
State,  and  represented  the  State  in  the  Supreme  Lodge  of  the 
United  States.  He  is  a  member  also  of  the  Royal  Arcanum 
and  at  present  Grand  Vice  Regent  of  that  order.  In  every 
business,  society  or  order  with  which  he  has  been  connected,  he 
has,  seemingly  without  effort  and  as  if  by  right,  gone  squarely 
to  the  front. 

Personally  Mr.  Powell  is  a  gentleman  of  winning  address, 
easy  mann-ers,  modest  and  i-etii-ing,  but  always  courteous  and 
pleasant.  In  all  the  relations  of  life  he  has  been  successful  and 
proven  himself  a  fair  type  of  the  cultured  and  genial  Southei-n 
irentleman. 


218 


REPRESENTA  TIVE  GEOR  GIANS. 


HON.  MARTIN   V.  CALVIN, 

REPRESENTATIVE    FROM    THE    COUNTY    OF    RICHMOND. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  219 


HON.  MARTIN  V.  CALVIN, 

REPRESENTATIVE    FROM    THE    COUNTY    OF    RICHMOND. 


If  the  writer  were  asked  to  paint  out  the  most  potent  and 
energetic  friend  of  public  education  in  tlie  present  House  of 
Representatives  he  would  instinctively  turn  to  the  subject  of 
this  sketch.  He  is,  in  many  respects,  a  remarkable  man,  and, 
while  making  no  claims  to  statesmanship,  being  modest  and 
unobtrusive,  he  is  yet  one  of  the  most  valuable  members  of  the 
General  Assembly. 

Mr.  Calvin  is  the  son  of  James  B.  and  Elizabeth  Calvin, 
and  was  born  in  Augusta.  Georgia,  September  23,  1842.  He 
had  early  and  liberal  educational  advantages  in  the  free  schools 
of  that  city,  under  Mr.  Thomas  Snowden,  the  classical  school 
of  William  Ernenputch,  and  was  finally  prepared  for  college 
by  Rev.  James  T.  Lin.  Entering  the  Junior  Class  of  Emory 
College,  he  had  but  just  risen  Senior  when  the  civil  war  broke 
out,  and  he  cast  aside  his  books  to  take  up  arms  in  defence  of 
his  country.  He  entered  the  Confederate  service  in  1861,  and 
served  throughout  the  war  in  the  Western  army.  He  was  dan- 
gerously wounded  in  the  left  thigh  at  the  battle  of  Fi-anklin, 
Tennessee,  in  November,  18(31,  and  was  captured  at  Columbia, 
Tennessee,  after  the  fall  of  Nashville. 

Returning  home  after  the  war,  Mr.  Calvin  entered  journal- 
istic pursuits  and  was  successively  editor  of  the  Augusta  Gazette, 
associate  news  editor  of  the  Constitutionalist  and  news  editor  of 
the  Augusta  Chronicle.  In  18G7  he  was  elected  Principal  of  the 
Augusta  Free  School,  then  of  the  Haughton  Institute,  and  held 
the  like  position  of  the  Peabody  Institute.     During  all  this  time 


2m  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

he  had  battled  unremittingly  for  city  and  county  public  schools, 
and  when  the  same  were  established  he  was  chosen  Superin- 
tendent. 

In  1873  the  present  admirable  system  of  public  schools  was 
inaugurated  in  Richmond  county,  and  Mr.  Calvin  was  elected 
a  member  of  the  Board  for  a  term  of  three  years.  There  were 
many  applicants  for  Superintendent,  and  unable  to  agree  after 
many  ballots  among  them,  Mr.  Cvlvin  was  chosen  for  three 
years.  He  accepted  conditionally,  organized  the  system,  and 
at  the  end  of  three  months  resigned,  thus  giving  up  a  hand- 
some salary  to  return  to  his  place  on  the  Board,  where  he 
received  practically  no  compensation. 

In  1871  Mr.  Calvin  took  charge  of  J.  B.  Lippincott  Co.'s 
introduction  work  in  the  South,  and  has  managed  their  l)usi- 
ness  continuously  since  that  time.  It  is  a  most  important  posi- 
tion, requiring  judgment  and  executive  ability,  and  his  long 
continuance  in  the  position  shows  his  value  and  the  esteem  in 
which  he  is  held.  He  has  large  discretion,  being  without 
limit  or  instructions  in  the  management  of  the  great  business 
entrusted  to  his  care. 

While  still  on  his  crutches,  at  the  close  of  the  war,  Mr. 
Calvin  addressed  the  St.  James  Sunday  School  of  Augusta 
upon  the  subject  of  raising  a  monument  to  those  who  had  gone 
out  from  the  school  and  died  in  defence  of  their  country.  The 
movement  he  inaugurated  resulted  in  the  handsome  cenotaph 
which  now  adorns  Green  street  in  front  of  St.  James  Church. 
This  was  in  October,  1865,  and  it  is  a  query  whether  Mr. 
Calvin  was  not  the  first  man  in  the  South  to  lift  his  voice  to 
inaugurate  memorials  of  her  dead  heroes. 

In  1882  Mr.  Calvin  was  elected  as  one  of  the  Representatives 
from  Richmond  county,  was  re-elected  in  1884,  and  again  in 
1886,  and  is  one  of  only  five  members  in  the  present  House 
serving  their  third  consecutive  term.  Upon  his  entry  into  the 
House  he  was  appointed  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Educa- 
tion, and  has  lield  that  position  ever  since,  rendering  valuable 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  221 

service  to  the  cause  of  education  and  tlie  fi;oueral  welfare  of  the 
State  in  manj^  directions.  He  is  an  active  nienil)er  of  the  Com- 
mittees on  Agriculture,  Military  Affairs  and  Internal  Improve- 
ments. 

In  the  House  of  lS84-'85  Mr.  Calvin  introduced  a  resolution, 
suggesting  to  the  Clerk  the  propriety  of  employing  ladies  as 
clerks  in  the  department  of  enrolled  and  engrosssed  bills.  Mr. 
Calvtx  supported  the  resolution  in  an  earnest  speech  and  it 
was  adopted  and  put  into  execution  with  the  most  satisfa(;tory 
results. 

This  movement  had,  in  the  State  at  large,  the  effect  Mr. 
Calvin  purposed  it  should  have,  namely,  of  directing  public 
attention  to  the  necessity  and  desirability  of  opening  to  women 
new  avenues  to  honorable  living. 

The  same  session  Mr.  Calvin  induced  the  House  to  order 
printed  dail}^  an  abstract  of  the  Journal,  which  enabled  mem- 
bers, present  or  absent,  quickly  to  inform  tliemselves  as  to  the 
condition  of  the  work  before  them. 

Personally  Mr.  Calvin  is  a  gentleman  of  winning  address, 
with  a  pleasant,  intellectual  face,  and  is  social  and  popular. 
He  has  been  a  consistent  member  of  the  Methodist  Church 
since  he  was  fourteen  j^ears  of  age.  The  trend  of  his  mind  is  in 
the  direction  of  literature,  and  linds  vent  in  numerous  commu- 
nications to  the  press.  He  is  active,  practical  and  vigilant  as  a 
Representative  and  keenly  alive  to  the  interests  of  his  city  and 
section,  as  well  as  the  State  at  large. 


REPRESENTA  TIVE  GE OR  GIANS. 


HON.  JOEL  C.    FAIN, 

JUDGE    SUPERIOR    COURTS    CHEROKEE    CIRCUIT. 


Hon.  Joel  C.  Fain  was  born  in  Floyd  county,  Georgia,  March 
21st,  1839.  Judge  Fain  is  descended  from  an  illustrious  ances- 
try. On  his  father's  side  he  is  descended  from  the  French 
Huguenots,  who  settled  first  in  Ireland,  after  leaving  their 
native  country,  and  subsequently  removed  to  the  United  States, 
making  their  home  in  Maryland.  All  the  Fains  on  this  conti- 
nent have  come  from  this  source.  Judge  Fain's  mother  was  a 
Lumpkin,  a  name  famous  in  Georgia  history  since  the  earliest 
days  of  the  commonwealth. 

In  his  earlier  years  Judge  Fain  received  excellent  educa- 
tional advantages.     Laying  the  foundation  of  his  education  in 
the  common   schools   of  Cherokee,  Georgia,  he  subsequently 
graduated  at  Emorj^  and  Henry  College,  Virginia,  read  law  and. 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1801. 

He  had  but  received  his  commission  as  an  attorney  when  he 
laid  down  briefs  and  books  and  entered  the  Confederate  army. 
He  volunteered  as  a  private  in  the  Second  South  Carolina  regi- 
ment, which  went  immediatel}^  to  Virginia  and  was  engaged  in 
the  first  battle  of  Manassas,  where  he  received  two  severe 
wounds.  Upon  his  recovery  and  return  to  the  field  he  was 
elected  Captain  and  transferred  to  service  on  the  coast  of  Geor- 
gia.    In  the  spring  of  1862  he  was  made  a  captain  in  the  Sixth 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  223 

Georgia  regiment,  transferred  to  the  AVestern  army,  and  served 
in  all  the  arduous  campaigns  of  that  army,  was  promoted  to 
Lieutenant  Colonel,  wounded  at  the  battle  of  Chicamauga, 
again  on  the  retreat  from  Dalton  to  Atlanta,  from  the  effects  of 
which  several  wounds  he  was  discharged  from  active  service 
December,  1864. 

Returning  to  his  home  in  Gordon  county  after  the  war  Col. 
Fain  began  the  practice  of  his  profession.  In  this  he  was  emi- 
nently successful.  In  1866  he  was  elected  Solicitor  of  the 
County  Court  and  held  the  office  until  it  was  abolished  under 
the  constitution  of  1868.  In  the  same  year  he  was  elected  a 
State  Senator,  and  in  1870  a  member  of  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives from  Gordon  county.  Without  opposition  he  was  elected 
to  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  1877. 

Under  the  new  constitution  adopted  in  1877  Col.  Fain  was 
again  elected  to  the  State  Senate  and  served  in  the  session  of 
1878-79  in  that  body.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Judiciary 
Committee  of  the  Senate  along  with  Hon.  Henry  D.  McDaniel, 
and  other  distinguished  Georgians,  and  was  on  other  important 
general  and  special  Committees,  where  he  did  valuable  work 
for  the  State. 

In  1880  Col,  Fain  was  elected  by  the  General  Assembly 
Judge  of  the  Cherokee  Circuit.  At  the  end  of  his  four  years 
term  he  was  re-elected  in  1884  for  another  full  term.  On  the 
bench  he  has  made  a  record  as  an  upright,  fearless  and  impar- 
tial Judge,  and  his  administration  has  been  popular  with  bar 
and  people. 

Personally  Judge  Fain  is  social  and  genial  in  manner,  with 
rare  conversational  powers,  a  fund  of  anecdote,  keen  apprecia- 
tion of  humor,  and  the  bright  side  of  life,  and  a  universal  favor- 
ite among  his  friends.  He  has  been  twice  married.  His  first 
wife  was  Miss  Jennie  S.  Black,  of  South  Carolina,  to  whom  he 
was  married  in  1864.  Two  girls  and  live  sons  were  the  issue  of 
this  union.  Three  sons,  the  two  oldest  and  the  youngest,  are 
dead.     Their  mother  passed  away  July,  1885.     In  September, 


221^  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

1886,  Judge  Fain  was  married  a  second  time  to  Miss  Nannie  J. 
Groves,  of  Owensboro,  Kentucky. 

At  Calhoun,  Gordon  county,  Judge  Fain  lias  a  happy  home, 
where  he  devotes  such  time  as  his  judicial  duties  allow  to  agri- 
culture, to  which  he  is  greatly  attached,  and  the  enjoyments  of 
the  comforts  by  which  his  industry  have  surrounded  him. 


^26 


REPRESENT  A  Tl  VE  GEOR  GIANS. 


HON.  W.  W.  GORDON, 


REPRESENTATIVE  FROM  THE  COUNTY  OF  CHATHAM. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  227 


HON.  W.  W.  GORDON, 

REPRESENTATIVE    FROM    THE    COUNTY    OF    CHATHAM. 


No  man  in  the  present  General  Assemblj^  of  Georgia  has 
achieved  more  prominence  as  a  legislator  than  the  subject  of 
this  sketch,  Not  only  because  of  the  prominent  position  he 
has  occupied,  or  because  of  the  industry  and  ability  with  which 
he  has  met  the  onerous  requirements  of  the  place,  but  the  earn- 
estness and  fidelity  with  which  he  has  discliarged  the  duties 
devolved  upon  him  as  the  chairman  of  the  Finance  Committee. 
The  chairmanship  of  this  committee  is  no  rose  strewn  path  of 
dalliance.  On  the  one  hand  he  is  confronted  with  the  financial 
needs  and  absolute  necessities  of  the  machinery  of  government. 
On  the  other  he  is  met,  must  encounter  and  answer,  the 
retrenchment  and  reform  element  seeking  to  reduce  expenses 
to  the  lowest  possible  minimum.  To  provide  for  the  one,  and 
yet  lay  no  unnecessary  burdens  upon  the  other,  to  harmonize 
conflicting  views,  and  present  revenue  legislation  acceptable  to 
the  masses,  and  yet  sufficient  to  maintain  the  credit  of  the 
State  and  pay  ordinary  and  extraordinary  expenses,  requires 
financial  acumen,  legislative^  finesse,  and  complete  knowledge 
of  the  State's  resources  and  abilities  possessed  by  few  men  in 
the  commonwealth.  To  say  that  Capt.  Gordon  has  discharged 
the  duties  of  this  trying  position  in  an  able,  conscientious,  and 
successful  manner,  is  to  pay  him  the  highest  compliment. 

William  W.  Gordon  was  born  in  Savannah,  Georgia,  Octo- 
ber 14, 1834.  His  grandfather,  Ambrosp:  Gordon,  was  a  Captain 
ill  Col.  William  Washington's  regiment  of  diagoons  in  the  Rev- 
olutionary war.     His  father,  W.  AV.  Gordon,  was  one  of  the 


228  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 

original  projectors  of  the  Central  Railroad,  the  first  built  in 
Georgia,  and  its  first  president.  In  the  center  of  one  of  the 
beautiful  squares  in  the  city  of  Savannah  rises  a  marble  ceno- 
taph commemorative  of  the  life  and  character  of  this  one  of 
Georgia's  most  prominent  and  public  spirited  citizens.  How 
little  did  he  think  that  the  enterprise  of  which  he  was  one  of 
the  leading  spirits  was  but  the  forerunner  of  a  system  that 
should  spread  and  grow  and  multiply,  and  at  last  see  its  per- 
fect work,  only  when  almost  every  hamlet  in  the  State  he  loved 
should  hear  the  snort  of  the  iron  horse  and  feel  the  earth  trem- 
ble beneath  his  mighty  tread. 

W.  W.  Gordon,  the  elder,  died  in  1834.  Notwithstanding 
all  he  had  done  for  Georgia,  and  his  prominent  position,  his 
family  were  left  in  straitened  circumstances,  and  this  resulted 
in  their  removal  to  New  Jersey.  There  and  in  New  York 
State  the  subject  of  our  sketch  laid  the  foundation  of  his  edu- 
cation, entered  Yale  College  in  1850,  and  graduated  in  1854. 
Soon  thereafter  he  returned  to  Savannah,  and  entered  business 
as  a  clerk  for  Tison  &  Mackay,  prominent  cotton  merchants  of 
that  city.  Upon  Mr.  Mackay 's  retirement  in  1856,  the  firm 
became  Tison  &  Gordon. 

In  1861  Mr.  Gordon  entered  the  Confederate  army  as  sergeant 
of  a  cavalry  company  raised  in  Savannah,  and  attached  to  the 
Sixth  Virginia  Cavalry,  afterwards  becoming  a  part  of  the  cele- 
brated Jeff  Davis  Legion.  He  was  elected  second  Lieutenant, 
subsequently  promoted  to  a  captaincy,  and  appointed  Adjutant 
and  Inspector  on  the  staff'  of  Gen.  Mercer  commanding  troops 
on  the  Georgia  coast.  Mercer's  Brigade  joining  the  Confed- 
erate army  at  Dalton,  in  1864,  Capt.  Gordon  served  with  Ids 
command  throughout  the  Alanta  campaign  and  Sherman's 
march  to  the  sea,  was  then  transferred  to  Anderson's  Cavalry 
Brigade,  and  surrendered  with  it  at  Hillsboro,  North  Carolina, 
April,  1865. 

In  the  following  August  the  firm  of  Tison  &  Gordon  re-com- 
menced tlieir  business  suspended  during  the  war.     The  house 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  229 

grew  and  prospered  for  eleven  years.  In  1876  Mr.  Tison  died, 
and  ('apt.  (Ioedon  taking  in  otlier  partners  has  continued  under 
tlie  firm  name  of  W.  A¥.  Gordon  &  Co.  to  the  present  time. 

In  1876,  during  the  famous  yellow  fever  epidemic,  Capt.  Gor- 
don was  a  member  of  the  Benevolent  Association,  an  organiza- 
tion of  citizens  who  made  it  their  business  to  systematically 
care  for  the  sick  and  destitute.  Standing  at  his  post .  when 
thousands  were  flying  the  city,  and  hundreds  were  dying  all 
around  him.  he  exhibited  a  moral  hei'oism  beyond  even  that 
shown  in  battle.  That  he  escaped  the  dread  scourge  and  came 
out  unscathed  is  little  short  of  a  miracle. 

In  1884  Mr.  Gordon  was  elected  as  one  of  the  Representa- 
tives from  Chatham  county  in  the  General  Assembly.  This  old 
and  cultivated  community  has  never  sent  a  more  able  and  val- 
uable member  to  the  House.  In  1886  he  was  re-elected.  His 
service  in  the  House  is  matter  of  public  history.  Of  his  work 
on  the  Finance  Committee  we  have  already  spoken,  and  it  has 
been  no  less  valuable  and  conscientiouslj^  performed  in  all  the 
scope  of  his  legislative  duties. 

Capt.  Gordon  was  married  in  1857  to  Miss  Nellie  Kinzie,  of 
Chicago.  Six  children  are  the  issue  of  the  marriage.  On  one 
of  the  most  charming  streets  in  the  beautiful  City  by  the  Sea, 
Savannah,  he  has  a  palatial  home,  in  which  he  dispenses  a  hos- 
pitality, as  elegant  as  it  is  sweet,  surrounded  by  every  comfort 
wealth  can  procure  and  a  cultivated  taste  suggest. 


230  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.  LINTON  A.  DEAN, 

SENATOR    FROM    THE    FORTY-SECOND    DISTRICT. 


Of  the  younger  men  in  the  Senate  of  Georgia  who  have  made 
a  most  auspicious  opening  of  a  public  career  which  promises  to 
be  long  and  useful  is  the  subject  of  this  sketch.  Never  having 
before  occupied  official  position,  the  high  stand  he  has  taken 
among  his  colleagues,  and  the  important  work  he  has  done,  are 
a  high  tribute  to  the  ability  of  the  man,  and  give  promise  of  a 
brilliant  career  in  the  future. 

Linton  A.  Dean,  of  Rome,  was  born  in  Chattooga  county, 
Georgia,  January  24,  1855.  He  is  the  son  of  Henry  Dean,  and 
his  mother  was  before  marriage  Miss  T.  Jane  Adams,  of  Hall 
county,  a  daughter  of  Elijah  C.  Adams,  a  prominent  citizen  of 
that  count3^  Young  Dean  received  a  primary  education  in 
the  common  schools  of  Floyd  county,  after  which  he  entered 
Mercer  University,  took  the  full  course,  and  graduated  in  1875. 
In  his  university  course  he  took  high  rank,  was  a  member  of 
the  S.  A.  E.  Society,  and  was  elected  Anniversarian  of  the  Phi 
Delta  Society  to  which  he  also  belonged. 

Leaving  college  he  chose  the  law  as  his  profession  and  to 
fully  equip  himself  took  a  course  at  the  Columbia  University, 
Washington,  D.  C.  from  which  institution  he  graduated  in 
June,  1876,  and  in  the  following  October  entered  the  practice  of 
law  at  Rome,  Georgia.  He  formed  a  copartnership  with  J.  W. 
EvviNG,  and  the  firm  of  Dean  &  Ewing  has  built  up  a  lucrative 
and  constantly  increasing  practice  in  the  Hill  City. 

His  present  seat  in  the  Senate  was  won  over  stout  opposition 
by  a  prominent  and  popidar  gentleman.     In  that  body  Ivc  is 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


231 


the  chairman  of  tlie  Special  Judiciary  Committee,  and  is  a 
member  of  other  important  committees,  including  Banks, 
Finance,  and  Railroads.  He  has  made  an  enviable  record  on 
all  of  these,  and  likewise  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate,  as  a  clear 
tliinker,  strong  debater,  and  careful,  conservative,  and  con- 
scientious legislator. 

At  the  earl}^  age  of  twenty-three  Mr.  Dean  was  united  in 
marriage  to  Miss  Agnes  Gr.  Smith,  a  charming  young  lady, 
daughter  of  a  prominent  citizen  of  Rome,  and  four  children 
brighten  the  home  in  whicli  he  finds  rest,  peace,  and  comfort 
from  the  toils  and  struggles  of  a  busy  life. 
16 


S32  REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS. 


HON.  JOSEPH   S.  JAMES, 

SENATOR    FROM    THE    THIRTV-SIXTH    DISTRICT, 


Among  the  younger  members  of  the  upper  House  of  the 
General  Assembly  who  leave  their  irftpress  upon  all  the  legisla- 
tion of  that  honorable  body  is  the  subject  of  the  present  sketch. 
Though  modest  and  unassuming,  and  not  disposed  to  push 
himself  into  undue  prominence,  he  is  yet  so  earnest  and  sincere 
in  his  convictions  upon  all  public  questions  which  challenge  his 
attention,  that  he  is  prone  to  labor  in  season  and  out  of  season 
for  that  line  of  policy  that  commends  itself  to  his  judgment. 
He  makes  up  his  mind  only  after  mature  deliberation,  and 
from  positions  once  taken  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  move 
him. 

Senator  James  is  descended  from  the  ]N"orth  Carolina  family 
of  that  name,  his  father,  Stephen  James,  having  emigrated  to 
Georgia  from  the  old  North  State,  and  married  Miss  Shippey, 
who  is  still  living,  and  has  borne  her  husband  thirteen  children, 
of  whom  the  subject  of  the  present  sketch  is  the  sixth. 

In  the  common  schools  of  Campbell,  now  Douglass  county. 
Senator  James  received  a  common  school  education,  and,  read- 
ing law,  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1875.  Agriculture, 
merchandise  and  law  have  all  claimed  liis  attention,  and  he 
has  found  time,  as  well,  amid  these  multifarious  pursuits,  to 
take  a  warm  interest  in  local  and  State  politics,  and  has  been 
honored  by  his  people  with  many  offices  of  public  trust.  As 
Justice  of  the  Peace,  Mayor  of  his  town,  Representative  in  the 
lower  House,  and  in  the  Senate  he  has  always  given  such  uni- 
versal satisfaction  that  his  popularity  has  been  augmented  in 


REPRESENTATIVE  GEORGIANS.  233 


each  successive  station  to  which  the  suffrages  of  au  intelligent 
and  appreciative  constitutency  have  called  him. 

In  the  Senate  INIi-.  James  occupies  a  leading  place  on  the  Gen- 
eral Judiciary  Committee,  also  on  Plnance,  Railroads,  etc.,  and 
is  chairman  of  the  Penitentiary  Committee.  He  has  given 
much  earnest  and  faitliful  work  to  investigation  of  the  prison 
system.  He  is  a  fluent,  cogent  and  graceful  speaker,  read^^  in 
debate,  courteous  and  considerate  alwaj^s,  and  popular  in  the 
Senate,  as  he  is  at  home  on  his  native  heath. 

In  October,  18()9,  Senator  James  was  married  to  Miss  Anna 
Maxwell,  of  Douglass  county,  a  most  charming  and  estimable 
lady,  and  three  bright  girls  make  sunshine  and  music  in  the 
house  where,  by  reason  of  liis  strong  domestic  tastes,  the  Sena- 
tor finds  his  highest  enjoyment. 


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^BLmiL^aL. 


Jt.,^jFt..*I..^Jt.JLr.tt.,ft,,^Jt.Jt^Ji^,^Jk-^^k^ 


HUNNICUTT  &  BELUN&RATH, 

^mlW^  i'  piumher«?,  -t-  ^team  -t-  and  <•  ({a^  •>  Fittei^^, 
Architectural  Galvanized  Iron  Workers, 

AND     TIN     ROOFBRS, 

ATLANTA.  GA. 


COR.  PE.VCHTREE  AND  WALTON, 


•AGENTS  FOR- 


Knowles'  Steam   Pumps,  Dunning's   Boilers,  Morris  &,  Tasl<er's 

Wrought  Iron  Pipe  for  Steam,  Gas  and  Water, 

Climax  Gas  Machine, 

AND  DKAI-EKS  IN 

Steam  Fitters'  and  Plumbers'  Brass  Goods,  Bath  Tubs,  Wash  Basins,   Marble 

Slabs.  Water  Closets,  Stoves,  Ranges.  Hot  Water  Boilers,  Furnaces, 

Marbleized  Iron  and   Slate  Mantles.   Grates,  Hardwood 

Mantles.  Gas  Fixtures.  Pumps.  Rubber  Hose.  &c. 

Plans  and  Specifications  Furnislied  on  Application 


PUBLISHED  EVERY  THURSDAY  MORNING  AT 

GAINESVILLE,  GA., 

By  BUTT  &  Bl,AXS,    -     -    Editors  and  Proprietors. 


Subscription,  $1.00  Per  Annum. 


I 


The  Eagle  is  a  largo,  thirty-two  column  paper,  printed 
entirely  at  home,  and  every  line  of  its  matter  being  thus 
carefully  selected  by  the  editors  they  can  promise  a  clean, 
wholesome  family  paper. 

The  Eagle  is  Democratic  in  politics,  an  earnest  advocate 
of  tariff  reform  as  opposed  to  protected  monopolies,  and 
the  exponent  of  the  rights  of  the  people  on  all  public 
questions. 

*/TSAl»IPI^K    COPIES    EREE^»« 


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BARNES,  EVANS  &  CO.  and  CAMP  BROTHERS,      | 

Lessees  and  Proprietors.  p 

K.  J.   WHITEHEAD,    NIanager.  f 


^   OPEN  FOR  RECEPTION  OF  GUESTS  FROM  JUNE  1st  TO  OCT.  1st.    F 


MEANS  OF   ACCESS.  9 

u 

Richmond  and  Danville  Railroad  from  Atlanta  and  the  9 

South  and  Southwest ;  Georgia  Railroad  and  Gainesville,  » 

Jefferson  &  Southern  Railroad  from  Augusta  and  points  g^ 

South  ;  Northeastern  and  R.  &  D.  R.  R.  from  the  North  r 

and  East.  j 

AMUSEMENTS.  C. 

Lawn  Tennis,  Archery,  Croquet,  Swings,  Base  Ball,  Bil-   C 
liards,  Skating,  Ten  Pins  and  Dancing.  p 

9 
LIVERY.  0 

9 
A  First-Class  Stable  will  be  maintained  on  the  grounds.      C 

MUSIC.  ^ 

An  Elegant  Orchestra  has  been  engaged  for  the  entire   p 

season.  i 

MINERAL  WATERS.  | 

Three  Springs — Calcic,  Alkaline  and  Sulphur.  | 


TERMS  :  S 

m 
Per  day,   $2.00;    per  week,   $10.00  to  $12.00;    per   C 

month,  $30.00  to  $40.00,  according  to  loca-  0 

tion  of  room  and  space  occupied.  r 


Resident  Physician  -Dr.  J.  W.  BAILEY.  S» 

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li  I^twiMflM: ' 


GAINESVIULE,    -   -    -    GEORGIA, 


A.  W.  VanHoose,  President, 
Ancient  Languages  and  Natural  Science. 

Judge  J.  B.  ESTES, 
Commercial  Law. 

Dr.  J.  W.  Bailey, 
Hygiene. 

Miss  Lucy  E.  Rucker, 
Mathematics. 

Miss    S.   B.   WOOTEN, 
French  and  History. 

Miss  S.  L.  VanHoose, 
Preparatory  Department. 

Miss  M.  F.  VanHoose, 
Directress  Music  Department. 

Mrs.  Sallie  R.  Chancellor, 
Drawing  and  Painting. 

Mrs.  E.  A.  Grace, 
Matron. 


A  school  thorough  and  economical.  A  full  set  of  tele- 
graphic instruments.  New  and  commodious  buildings, 
heated  by  furnace.  Everything  possible  done  for  health 
and  convenience  of  our  pupils.  A  large  grove  of  native 
forest  oaks.     Beautiful  grounds. 

Tuition,      -        -      $3.00  to  $5.00  per  month. 

Music,     -----       $3.00  to  $4.50 

Art,     -----  $2.50  to  $5.00 

Parties  having  daughters  or  wards  to  educate  would  do 

well  to  correspond  with  the  undersigned. 

As  a  health  resort,  Gainesville  is  unsurpassed. 

J^.  W.  VANHOOSE, 

President  Faculty. 


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